OF  THE  LITERATURE 


THE   ENGLISH   RENAISSANCE 


EDWIN  GREENLAW 


BORN    &    CO. 


UNIVERSITY  O* 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


75 


/  ^  3  o 


AN  OUTLINE  OF  THE  LITERATURE 

OF  THE 

ENGLISH  RENAISSANCE 


BY 

EDWIN   GREENLAW 

PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH  IN  THE   UNIVERSITY  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA 


ov  wdAA*  ciAAa  woXv 


BENJ.  H.  SANBORN  &  CO. 

CHICAGO   NEW  YORK  BOSTON 
1916 


COPTKIGHT,    1916,   BY 

BENJ.  H.  SANBORN  &  CQ 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  consists,  in  the  main,  of  those  pages  from  A  Syllabus  of  English 
Literature,  published  in  1912,  which  deal  with  the  literature  of  the  English 
Renaissance.  Such  an  outline,  it  is  hoped,  will  prove  a  convenience  to 
teachers  and  students  in  advanced  courses  who  wish  to  deal  with  the  special 
period  and  who  do  not  need  the  larger  work.  In  order  to  adapt  the  out- 
line to  the  needs  of  such  students  a  considerable  additional  bibliography 
has  been  prepared.  This  bibliography  makes  no  pretensions  to  com- 
pleteness; it  consists  of  references  to  books  and  articles,  not  given  in 
the  original  Syllabus,  which  a  student  dealing  with  the  period  will  find 
of  the  greatest  value.  A  few  references  to  articles  in  scholarly  journals 
have  been  included,  sometimes  because  of  their  value  as  contributions  to 
knowledge,  at  other  times  because  they  deal  with  topics  not  treated  specifi- 
cally elsewhere  but  necessary  in  a  complete  study  of  the  field  in  which 
they  lie.  Obviously  such  references  have  been  made  sparingly,  and  many 
excellent  essays  have  been  omitted. 

For  assistance  hi  preparing  the  additional  bibliography,  particularly 
that  portion  which  deals  with  the  age  of  Milton,  I  am  under  obligations 

to  my  colleague,  Professor  J.  H.  Hanford. 

EDWIN  GREENLAW 

Chapel  Hill,  North  Carolina 
October,  1916 


in 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

THE  PERIOD  AS  A  WHOLE 11 

GENERAL  WORKS 11 

THE  DRAMA 15 

SPENSER 19 

BACON 20 

OTHER  ELIZABETHAN  PROSE 22 

POETS  FROM  SPENSER  TO  MILTON , 23 

SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  PROSE 23 

MILTON 23 

CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINES 27 

CHANGES  INFLUENCING  LITERATURE 28 

EARLY  HUMANISM  IN  ENGLAND 28 

TRANSITIONAL  POETRY 30 

THE  MIRROR  FOR  MAGISTRATES 32 

TOTTEL'S  MISCELLANY 32 

GASCOIGNE 34 

THE  NEW  ENGLISH  POETRY 36 

INFLUENCE  OF  ITALY  AND  FRANCE 36 

THE  SONNET 38 

THE  PASTORAL 42 

OTHER  LYRIC  POETRY 46 

SPENSER 48 

THE  DRAMA '. 56 

ORIGIN 56 

THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 62 

THE  NEW  DRAMA 66 

LYLY 66 

MARLOWE 66 

KYD,  PEELE,  GREENE 68 

SHAKSPERE 72 

CONTEMPORARIES  OF  SHAKSPERE 84 

JONSON,  CHAPMAN,  DEKKER -. 84 

BEAUMONT  AND  FLETCHER 86 

THE  END  OF  THE  ROMANTIC  DRAMA 86 

V 


VI 


PAGE 

ELIZABETHAN  PROSE 88 

PROSE  FICTION 88 

LITERARY  CRITICISM 92 

HISTORICAL  AND  DIDACTIC  WORKS 96 

BACON 96 

ELIZABETHAN  TRANSLATIONS 100 

POETRY  FROM  JONSON  TO  MILTON 106 

DRAYTON,  DONNE 106 

JONSON,  HERRICK 108 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  SPENSER 110 

THE  LYRIC  POETS 112 

BEGINNINGS  OF  PSEUDO-CLASSICISM 114 

WALLER,  DENHAM 116 

COWLEY,  DAVENANT 118 

SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  PROSE  BEFORE  DRYDEN 120 

PROSE  OF  LEARNING  AND  SCIENTIFIC  INQUIRY 120 

BROWNE,  FULLER 120 

WALTON 122 

TRAVEL,  HISTORY,  THEOLOGICAL  WRITERS 122 

MILTON 124 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  his  Modern  Studies  Oliver  Elton  has  remarked  that -for  Englishmen 
the  chief  critical  task  of  the  present  time  is  "to  enter  into  the  mind  of 
the  English  Renaissance."  The  same  obligation  rests  upon  American 
inheritors  of  English  literature  and  thought.  During  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury our  common  language  took  on  its  modern  forms,  our  common  litera- 
ture —  epic,  lyric,  dramatic,  narrative  —  first  gained  adequate  expres- 
sion, and  it  is  to  the  English  Renaissance  that  we  owe  many  of  the 
characteristics  which  differentiate  Anglo-Saxon  political  thought  from  that 
of  other  races.  It  is  true  that  Tudor  absolutism  apparently  culminated 
under  the  Stuarts  in  the  pestilent  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Right  and  that 
the  democratic  ideal  emerged  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  is  true 
that  in  the  field  of  science  Bacon's  accomplishment  seems  negligible  hi 
comparison  with  that  of  the  giants  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  in 
the  field  of  literature,  it  is  true  that  only  Shakspere  seems  to  possess  a 
kingdom  in  the  minds  of  men  of  to-day,  since  the  drama  written  by  his 
contemporaries  is  read  only  by  students  who  are  interested  in  dramatic 
history,  while  Spenser  is  more  admired  than  read  and  even  Milton  is  dis- 
carded along  with  his  theology.  Utopia  and  The  New  Atlantis  are  mere 
names;  the  Faerie  Queene  is  a  long  poem  which  others  than  Macaulay 
comment  on  or  commend  without  a  reading;  Lycidas  has  become  an 
instrument  of  torture  in  the  effort  to  make  English  as  difficult  for  the 
high  school  student  as  Mathematics  or  Greek. 

Nevertheless,  if  we  could  only  see  it,  no  other  period  in  English  literature 
or  history  lies  so  close  to  the  present.  Our  own  national  history  should 
teach  us  this.  Begotten  through  a  political  idealism  of  a  kind  dimly 
felt  among  Elizabethans;  developed  through  a  pioneer  stage  of  forest 
conquest  which  the  English  of  that  century  had  left  behind  not  too  remotely; 
proceeding,  in  these  later  days,  to  a  conquest  of  nature  such  as  Bacon 
pointed  out  and  prayed  for  but  did  not  live  to  see,  and,  just  now,  rising 

1 


to  a  conception  of  nationalism  which  in  its  enthusiasm  and  consciousness 
of  power  bids  fair  to  revolutionize  all  our  modes  of  thinking  and  to  do 
away  with  much  of  our  selfish  individualism,  —  our  present  civilization 
is  ripe  for  a  transformation  which  may  well  be  a  new  birth.  The  parallel 
is  extraordinary.  Tudor  England  had  shaken  off  feudalism  and  estab- 
lished a  strongly  centralized  government,  had  shaken  off  also  the  idea  of 
withdrawal  from  world  affairs  and  become  one  of  the  family  of  nations, 
and  had  felt  not  only  in  government  circles  but  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
people  a  passionate  patriotism  embodied  in  men  of  action  like  Drake  and 
Raleigh;  celebrated  by  Holinshed  and  Hakluyt,  recorders  of  their  deeds; 
finding  literary  expression  in  Spenser,  who  was  of  the  court,  in  Shakspere, 
who  was  of  and  for  all  classes,  and  in  Thomas  Deloney,  who  discoursed  of 
the  virtues  and  opportunities  of  those  who  plied  the  gentle  craft.  So  the 
United  States,  passing  from  a  confederation  of  sovereignties  to  a  new 
and  vital  sense  of  national  unity,  and  now  to  a  loftier  sense  of  duty  and 
of  power,  abandons  provincial  isolation  and  prepares  to  take  a  hand  in 
world  affairs.  Again,  nationalism  finds  a  stimulus  hi  the  development 
of  commerce;  Tudor  England's  vision  of  commercial  empire,  taught  by 
her  great  navigators,  finds  a  parallel  in  the  vision  opening  to  American 
trade. 

In  the  field  of  culture  there  are  also  interesting  parallels.  English 
culture  developed,  during  the  sixteenth  century,  from  the  first  impulse 
gained  through  contact  with  the  classics  to  an  appropriation  of  whatever 
in  the  classics  was  thought  suitable  to  the  new  conditions.  The  human- 
ism of  Colet,  More,  and  Erasmus  differs  from  the  humanism  of  Spenser  and 
Shakspere,  Jonson  and  Milton,  but  the  later  humanism  was  a  develop- 
ment from  seed  to  fruit,  not  a  dry  rot.  The  study  of  the  classics  in  the 
universities  became  pedantry,  but  knowledge  of  their  contents  became 
more  widely  diffused,  and  therefore  more  potent.  It  was  a  golden  age  of 
translation,  to  the  immeasurable  gain  of  the  native  tongue  in  vocabulary, 
of  English  prose  style  in  technique,  and  of  English  culture  in  familiarity 
with  the  riches  of  ancient  literature.  And  while  the  present  tendency  in 
American  education  seems  to  be  away  from  the  classics  and  toward  the 
so-called  vocational  subjects,  no  one  who  knows  American  character  can 
believe  that  an  efficient  utilitarianism  will  usurp  finally  and  completely 


the  place  of  liberal  studies.  We  are  passing  through  a  period  of  transi- 
tion. A  change  in  method  is  inevitable,  but  the  humanities  will  not  be 
irretrievably  lost.  The  letter  may  perish,  but  the  spirit  is  a  pure  and 
ever-burning  flame. 

Even  from  the  standpoint  of  letters  there  are  parallels  between  the 
present  age  and  the  Renaissance.  Early  sixteenth  century  literature,  like 
much  of  our  recent  literature,  was  preoccupied  with  form  without  life,  or 
with  bizarre  experiments  in  metre  and  stanza,  or  with  mere  imitation. 
But  when  the  abounding  flood  of  life  swept  England,  a  new  literature  was 
born.  When  she  attained  a  soul  her  voice  became  clear,  resonant,  authen- 
tic. Drama,  lyric,  romance,  epic,  spoke  this  life.  With  us,  too,  there 
are  already  signs  of  a  new  day.  Movements  such  as  the  Little  Country 
Theatre  of  certain  middle-western  states  are  full  of  promise;  revivals  of 
community  spirit,  first  and  properly  manifested  in  sanitation,  clean-up 
weeks,  city-beautiful  campaigns,  are  developing  the  sense  that  not  only 
community  health  and  economic  welfare  are  important,  but  that  com- 
munity festivals,  dramas,  music,  are  natural  extensions  of  the  renewal  of 
folk-consciousness.  Out  of  such  folk-consciousness,  stimulated  by  the  new 
nationalism,  fed  by  contact  with  other  literatures,  the  drama  of  the  age 
of  Shakspere  was  born,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  whole  glorious  body 
of  poetry  and  prose  of  that  age. 

Besides  such  parallels  as  these,  there  are  other  reasons  why  the  study 
of  the  literature  of  the  English  Renaissance  is  profitable  to-day.  For  one 
thing,  no  other  period  in  our  literary  history  is  so  rich  in  what  may  be 
called  symbols  of  racial  experience.  This  is  partly  due  to  Elizabethan 
fondness  for  allegory,  which  took  on  new  forms,  but  at  bottom  it  is  due  to 
the  way  in  which  men  of  that  tune  looked  on  life.  There  is  no  better 
approach  to  the  study  of  the  period  than  that  afforded  by  Marlowe's 
Faustus.  The  framework  is  that  of  the  old  morality:  vices  and  virtues 
contending  for  man's  soul;  the  life  in  sin;  the  final  effort,  fitly  symbolized 
by  the  old  man,  at  reclamation,  and  the  ultimate  disaster.  But  these 
old  symbols  take  on  new  life,  first,  through  the  exaltation  of  the  individual, 
the  seeking  for  deeper  and  richer  experience,  and,  second,  through  the 
fact  that  here  we  have  the  first  clear  statement  of  the  struggle  between 
what  Arnold  later  called  Hebraism  and  Hellenism.  Hebraism,  strictness 


of  conscience,  consciousness  of  sin,  is  illustrated  by  the  tortures  through 
which  Faustus  passes.  But  Hellenism,  renaissance  passion  for  beauty 
and  for  more  abundant  life,  is  clearly  seen  in  such  passages,  for  example, 
as  that  beginning 

Have  I  not  made  blind  Homer  sing  to  me? 

or  the  splendid  outburst 

Was  this  the  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships 
And  burnt  the  topless  towers  of  Ilium? 

On  the  one  hand  is  the  procession  of  the  seven  deadly  sins;  on  the  other 
the  desire  of  the  mind  to  look  on  things  as  they  really  are,  "  still  climbing 
after  knowledge  infinite."  Thus  Faustus,  relic  of  medievalism  in  plot 
and  form,  becomes  as  clearly  symbolical  as  allegory  itself,  and  should  be 
studied  not  only  as  an  example  of  early  English  tragedy  but  also  as  a 
means  for  understanding  life  as  men  of  the  Renaissance  conceived  it. 
Again,  Spenser's  use  of  familiar  situations  in  the  old  romances  to  sym- 
bolize his  political  idealism,  as  for  example  Artegal's  defense  of  Irena, 
illustrates  the  fact  that  in  periods  when  men's  minds  are  powerfully  stirred 
through  some  crisis  or  through  some  sudden  development  in  national 
ideals,  story  and  thought  of  the  past  acquire  symbolic  meaning.  There 
are  stories  that  are  not  stories,  but  symbols  woven  into  the  innermost 
depths  of  the  human  spirit,  possessing  not  the  immortality  of  beauty  which 
Keats  saw  hi  the  Grecian  Urn,  or  the  immortality  of  verse  which  Shakspere 
promised  for  his  sonnets,  or  the  immortality  of  influence  of  which  Shelley 
wrote  hi  Adonais,  but  operating  like  the  secret  and  mysterious  forces  of 
nature,  taking  on  new  forms  when  humanity,  in  some  renaissance  or  some 
world  crisis,  calls  on  its  deepest  powers  in  its  search  for  an  interpretation 
of  life.  Therefore  Spenser's  version  of  Arthurian  romance  is  at  once  a 
revival  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  expressions  of  the  medieval  spirit  and 
a  re-interpretation  of  that  material  to  symbolize  the  experience  of  the 
new  England.  Like  Faustus  it  is  more  than  the  creation  of  one  man; 
morality  and  allegory  are  alike  typical  of  so  large  a  body  of  thought  and 
opinion  as  to  be,  so  to  speak,  racial.  This  may  be  clearly  seen  if  we  com- 
pare, let  us  say,  Endimion  with  either  of  them.  Lyly's  play  is  a  charming 
fancy,  enormously  popular,  appealing  to  the  popular  taste  for  witty  dia- 


logue,  graceful  lyrics,  and  playful  identification  of  court  dignitaries  with 
classical  figures.  But  Faustus  is  a  superb  phrasing  of  the  conflict  between 
Puritanism  and  the  new  spirit  of  scientific  inquiry,  between  the  fearsome 
idea  that  men  sign  with  their  blood  contracts  to  deliver  their  souls  to 
Satan  and  the  tendency  to  throw  off  authority,  to  probe  life  to  its  depths, 
to  be  troubled  with  thoughts  beyond  the  reaches  of  our  souls.  And  the 
Faerie  Qwene,  outwardly  a  romance  like  Amadis  or  Arcadia,  also  uses 
medieval  allegory  and  morality  play  and  chivalric  story  to  shadow  forth 
a  mighty  panorama,  an  infinitely  varied  succession  of  dissolving  views,  an 
interpretation  through  symbol  of  the  life  that  pulsed  so  intensely  through 
the  veins  of  Elizabethan  England. 

Other  illustrations  might  be  given.  There  is,  for  example,  that  pro- 
foundly interesting  "religion  of  beauty  hi  women,"  concerning  which 
Professor  Fletcher  has  written  with  so  much  learning  and  insight.  Here, 
too,  we  have  medievalism  drawn  upon  to  symbolize  new  thought.  On  the 
one  hand  there  were  the  fanciful  allegories  of  the  courts  of  love  and  of 
the  Roman  de  la  Rose;  on  the  other  the  whole  range  of  medieval  mysticism. 
In  Italy  a  literature  grew  up  about  these  allegories,  from  Dante's  Divine 
Comedy  and  New  Life  to  Ficino's  exposition  of  Platonism  and  Petrarch's 
glorification  of  love  in  his  sonnets,  reaching  an  eloquent  climax  in  Bembo's 
speech  on  love  in  the  fourth  book  of  II  Cortegiano.  This  too  found  a  place 
in  Elizabethan  sonnets  and  in  Spenser's  noble  Hymns,  on  the  one  hand 
marking  a  transition  from  the  earlier  English  attitude  toward  women  to 
the  imperishable  portraits  of  Rosalind,  Desdemona,  Cordelia,  Perdita, 
and  Imogen,  and  on  the  other  hand  bearing  witness  to  the  fact  that  in  an 
age  of  great  deeds,  an  age  of  exploration  and  discovery,  the  imagination 
may  be  so  touched  that  philosophy  comes  down  from  heaven  to  be  em- 
bodied in  experience  and  made  " current  coin" 

Though  truth  in  manhood  darkly  join 

Deep-seated  in  our  mystic  frame.  .  .  . 

Where  truth  in  closest  words  shall  fail 

.  .  .  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 

Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

It  is  not  less  true  that  Shakspere's  greatest  dramas  are  also  symbols 
of  racial  experience.  The  historical  plays  and  tragedies  are  analogous 


6 

to  such  works  as  Faustus,  the  Faerie  Queene,  and  the  literature  of  Eliza- 
bethan Platonism  in  that  they  are  based  on  medieval  stories  told  hi  such 
a  way  as  to  apply  directly  to  the  problems  which  England  as  a  nation 
and  Englishmen  as  individuals  found  most  absorbing.  Thus  though 
Shakspere  avoids  allegory,  though  direct  references  to  contemporary  affairs 
in  his  plays  are  few  and  unimportant,  and  though  he  apparently  takes  no 
interest  in  questions  of  national  policy  such  as  one  finds  in  the  writings 
of  his  contemporaries,  he  reaches  results  that  are  similar.  Beginning 
with  Richard  II  and  John  we  have,  for  example,  a  series  of  studies  of  the 
Prince.  At  first,  following  Marlowe,  the  crown  is  represented  as  a  symbol 
of  glory,  and  kingship  is  a  personal  privilege.  In  Gloucester's  career  we 
have  a  complete  exposition  of  the  Machiavellian  philosophy,  with,  how- 
ever, swift  Nemesis  at  the  end.  Lear  resembles  Richard  II  in  many 
details  of  plot  and  is  a  later  and  maturer  study  of  the  same  theme,  while 
Macbeth  bears  a  similar  relation  to  Richard  III.  In  all  these  dramas  is  a 
clear  perception  of  the  illusion  of  worldly  place  and  honor  and  a  progressive 
criticism  of  the  political  philosophy  which  then  'dominated  Europe  and 
of  which  the  writings  of  Machiavelli  afford  the  chief  exposition.  So  also 
with  his  treatment  of  pastoralism;  he  avoids  the  artificial  elements  of  the 
genre,  and  yet  a  number  of  the  plays,  among  them  As  You  Like  It,  Cymbe- 
line,  and  The  Winter's  Tale,  are  closely  linked  with  the  familiar  discussion 
as  to  the  relations  between  the  active  and  the  contemplative  life.  The 
Tempest,  again,  is  not  a  sustained  allegory,  yet  it  is  filled  with  symbolism, 
while  Macbeth  is  another  Faustus.  Shakspere  deals  with  kings  and  courts, 
democracy  is  not  in  him,  but  his  kings  and  tragic  heroes  symbolize  various 
phases  of  experience.  He  is  "universal"  and  "for  all  tune"  not  because 
he  deals  with  the  stuff  of  romance  or  is  unequalled  in  his  power  of  creating 
character,  but  for  far  deeper  reasons.  Professor  Gilbert  Murray  has 
recently  compared  Orestes  and  Hamlet  to  show  how  in  both  dramas, 
springing  from  legends  born  hi 'remotest  antiquity,  we  have  "a  strange 
unanalyzed  vibration  below  the  surface,  an  undercurrent  of  desires  and 
fears  and  passions,  long  slumbering  yet  eternally  familiar,  which  have  for 
thousands  of  years  lain  near  the  root  of  our  most  intimate  emotions  and 
been  wrought  into  the  fabric  of  our  most  magical  dreams."  Thus  Shak- 
spere, like  his  great  contemporaries,  finds  in  old  forgotten  far-off  things 


the  materials  for  his  interpretation  of  life.  The  recent  observance  of  the 
tercentenary  of  his  death  has  taken  on  an  aspect  almost  religious.  In 
his  own  age  powerful  currents  were  changing  the  course  of  civilization;  hi 
ours  the  same  Titanic  forces  are  at  work  once  more.  In  such  a  tune  there 
is  no  human  help  save  hi  the  return  of  the  spirit  of  man  upon  itself.  The 
record  of  that  spirit  is  in  the  literature  of  the  past,  not  in  all  literature  of 
the  past,  but  hi  that  through  which  what  Emerson  called  "the  vast  back- 
ground of  our  being"  has  found  momentary  expression.  The  thoughts 
that  wander  through  eternity,  for  which  even  Belial  would  not  lose  this 
intellectual  being;  the  story  symbols  which  possess  a  life  beyond  life; 
the  deeper  meanings  found  in  Macbeth  or  Lear  or  Hamlet  when  read  hi  this 
century  which  sees,  as  no  century  since  the  sixteenth  has  seen,  the  working 
of  that  law  of  mutability  of  which  Spenser  wrote,  —  to  these  we  instinc- 
tively turn. 

I  have  dwelt  on  this  aspect  of  Elizabethan  literature  for  two  reasons. 
In  the  first  place,  we  have  confined  our  study  of  this  period  too  exclusively 
to  the  drama,  and  even  in  our  study  of  the  drama,  apart  perhaps  from 
Shakspere,  we  have  further  narrowed  our  study  to  matters  of  technique. 
We  read  extracts  from  the  Faerie  Queene,  a  page  or  two  from  Euphues,  a 
few  sonnets  and  pastorals,  a  few  essays  by  Bacon,  and  emerge  with  the 
feeling  that  the  days  of  Elizabeth  were  spacious  indeed  but  that  we  do 
not  care  to  explore  them.  But  if  it  is  worth  while  for  us  to  try  to  under- 
stand the  mind  of  the  English  Renaissance  we  shall  need  to  study  it  from 
other  angles  than  that  afforded  by  Shakspere's  plays,  and,  as  I  have 
tried  to  show,  even  Shakspere  may  be  better  understood  through  such  a 
course.  Such  studies  are  not  uninteresting  or  without  bearing  on  present 
problems.  There  is,  for  example,  the  development  of  humanism  from 
the  early  Tudor  period  to  Milton,  a  theme  of  great  value  in  view  of  the 
constantly  decreasing  interest  in  the  classics  to-day.  There  is  also  the 
subject  of  literary  criticism,  not  an  arid  field,  since  it  was  during  this  period 
that  most  of  the  literary  forms  with  which  we  are  familiar  developed. 
As  for  Bacon,  we  know  him  on  only  one  side  if  we  limit  ourselves  to  a  few 
essays  and  neglect  his  noble  treatise  on  the  Advancement  of  Learning. 
His  political  theory  has  been  left  almost  untouched  by  historians;  his 
conception  of  the  aims  and  methods  of  university  education  has  been 


8 

neglected  by  college  students  and  teachers,  though  it  is  stimulating  in  the 
highest  degree.  There  are  more  general  subjects,  such  as  the  training  of 
the  courtier  for  service  of  the  state,  or  the  larger  conception  of  historical 
writing,  or  the  new  attitude  toward  science.  From  the  literary  stand- 
point, there  are  the  short  stories,  for  the  adequate  study  of  which  no  con- 
venient collection  exists.  Deloney's  romances  of  middle  class  life  and 
Nash's  Jack  Wilton  deserve  more  attention,  because  of  their  greater  interest, 
than  Euphues.  The  literature  of  travel,  the  great  translations,  the  history 
of  the  English  Bible,  all  afford  opportunities.  Most  of  all,  English  litera- 
ture of  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  periods  gives  opportunities  for  acquaintance 
with  other  literatures.  This  is  the  natural  and  legitimate  use  for  what 
is  called  comparative  literature.  Such  interesting  sources  as  Malory,  the 
High  History  of  the  Holy  Grail,  Amadis  of  Gaul,  such  classics  as  Virgil  and 
Theocritus,  such  Italian  masterpieces  as  II  Principe,  II  Cortegiano,  and 
Tasso's  great  epic,  are  a  few  of  many  illustrations  of  the  riches  in  this 
field.  Milton,  it  is  true,  we  study;  yet  how  seldom  as  the  crowning  glory 
of  English  classicism  or  as  one  who  in  his  thought  sums  an  epoch.  Whether 
one  gives,  therefore,  a  college  term  or  a  lifetime  to  the  study  of  this  litera- 
ture from  a  standpoint  other  than  that  of  the  development  of  the  drama, 
there  is  richness  for  his  pains. 

The  other  reason  has  already  been  implied  in  all  that  has  been  said. 
In  recent  years  the  stress  in  college  courses  in  English  literature  has  fallen 
increasingly  on  technique.  The  technical  characteristics  of  the  lyric  or 
of  versification,  the  technique  of  the  drama  or  of  the  novel  or  short  story 
have  absorbed  attention.  To  a  certain  extent  this  tendency  illustrates 
the  prevailing  interest  in  efficiency  and  in  getting  results.  More  than  one 
successful  writer  of  magazine  fiction  has  confessed  to  prolonged  study  of 
Maupassant,  for  example,  in  an  effort  to  seize  the  secret  of  his  success. 
College  courses  and  even  correspondence  courses  are  given  with  the  object 
of  making,  hi  the  words  of  some  circulars,  a  successful  short  story  writer 
out  of  anybody.  In  the  drama  the  thing  is  not  less  conspicuous.  The 
technique  of  Ibsen  and  Pinero  has  been  studied,  and  the  same  method  has 
been  applied  to  a  host  of  lesser  luminaries,  with  the  object,  avowed  or  un- 
conscious, of  making  Tom  or  Dick  or  Mary  a  successful  dramatist.  The 
question  has  not  been  whether  the  playwright  whose  productions  are  thus 


9 

honored  with  our  study  has  anything  to  say,  but  altogether  as  to  the 
methods  which  brought  him  success.  In  the  welter  of  writing  and  lecturing 
about  successful  plays  and  short  stories  we  frequently  deal  with  works 
which  never  knew  the  divine  fire  but  are  merely  imitations,  paste  jewels, 
and  our  pupils  write  imitations  of  these  imitations,  sometimes  with  golden 
results,  oftener  to  no  avail.  To  adapt  Mr.  Mackaye's  portrait  of  the  Scare- 
crow, we  see  on  every  stage,  in  every  season,  plays  which  have  been  merely 
galvanized  into  a  semblance  of  life  through  sheer  force  of  technique,  and  we 
study  these  scarecrows  and  encourage  our  pupils  to  try  similar  manufacturing 
enterprises.  This  semblance  of  life  cannot  make  up  for  certain  qualities 
found  in  older  plays  which  technically  fall  far  short  of  our  present  precision. 
Is  it  not  possible  that  we  need  to  forget  technique  for  a  tune,  useful  and 
important  as  it  is,  hi  order  to  get  back  to  the  foundations  ?  In  the  age  of 
Pope,  for  example,  there  was  the  same  study  of  technical  perfection  that 
we  make  the  object  of  so  much  literary  study  to-day.  Did  not  the  writers 
of  that  age  plume  themselves  upon  their  superiority  and  view  with  con- 
descension the  mouldy  and  Gothic  past  ?  Was  not  then*  chief  interest 
too  often  in  the  letter  rather  than  hi  the  spirit ;  in  trying  to  find  the  "secret " 
of  Homer  and  Virgil  or  Shakspere  rather  than  the  soul;  in  trying  to  do, 
hi  short,  precisely  what  our  technicians  are  trying  to  do  to-day  ?  They 
succeeded  in  their  aims,  and  so  do  we.  It  is  also  true  that  then*  literary 
productions,  surpassingly  fine  as  they  frequently  are  in  technique,  are 
unread  to-day  except  hi  courses  in  literary  history. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  it  is  out  of  the  re-interpretation  of  the 
literature  of  the  past  that  the  great  poetry  and  drama  have  most  often 
been  born.  This  is  seen  in  Greek  and  Roman  literature;  it  is  profoundly 
true,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  of  the  English  Renaissance;  it  is  also  true  of 
much  of  the  noblest  prose  and  verse  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
literature  of  the  past  has  not  always  this  power  to  beget  new  masterpieces. 
In  an  age  of  material  prosperity  and  fat  peace,  when  life  presents  no  teasing 
questions,  the  great  themes  of  the  past  lack  this  magic  of  the  dragon's 
tooth.  But  hi  a  crisis,  a  period  of  transition,  a  tune  when  civilization 
is  on  the  rack,  men  turn  as  instinctively  to  the  past  experiences  of  the 
soul  as  to  God.  The  old  symbols  acquire  new  meaning,  the  instincts 
deeply  rooted  in  our  mystic  frame  are  stirred  once  more  and  vibrate  in 


10 

sympathy  with  chords  struck  in  ages  long  forgotten.  To  make  these 
harmonies  once  more  audible  genius  is  required.  That  the  mere  study  of 
literature  in  college  courses  can  bring  back  the  age  of  gold  is  a  prepos- 
terous idea.  Nevertheless,  in  this  age  when  men  all  over  the  world  are 
making  supreme  sacrifices,  are  expelling  the  dragon  of  selfishness  from 
the  woods  of  Westermain,  are  shaken  once  more  by  tragedy  and  thrilled 
with  idealism,  the  new  poets  and  dramatists  may  find  their  way  to  college 
class-rooms.  If  so,  there  is  no  richer  pasture  ground  for  them  than  the 
English  Renaissance,  a  period  when  literature  was  indeed  not  marked  by 
the  flawless  technique  characteristic  of  much  of  our  writing  of  to-day, 
but  when  the  theatre  of  life  was  crowded  with  stirring  scenes  and  when 
these  scenes  were  interpreted  to  the  multitudes  by  men  who  drew  on  the 
inexhaustible  stores  accumulated  by  the  human  spirit  through  thousands 
of  years. 


EDITIONS  AND  AUTHORITIES 


STATEMENT  OF  PROBLEMS 


THE  PERIOD  AS  A  WHOLE 


I.   GENERAL  WORKS 

NOTE.  —  The  following  pages  contain  the  names  of  the  important  books  and  monographs  for 
the  study  of  the  literature  of  the  period,  the  most  important  editions,  and  a  statement  of  topics 
for  study  designed  to  enable  students  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  period  as  a  whole,  and  of  the 
relations  to  the  period  of  great  authors  like  Spenser,  Shakspere,  Bacon,  and  Milton.  Dates  have 
been  given  only  in  the  case  of  books  and  monographs  recently  published,  or  belonging  to  the 
sixteenth  century.  Names  of  publishers  are  given  only  for  textbooks  and  for  a  few  other  books 
which  for  one  reason  or  another  may  be  hard  to  find.  Standard  histories  of  English  literature 
are  referred  to  by  the  name  of  the  author.  Such  books  as  are  generally  accessible  in  libraries,  not 
texts  or  books  which  the  student  will  probably  desire  to  purchase,  are  referred  to  by  author  and 
title  only. 

Both  references  and  statement  of  problems  are  designed  for  students  in  courses  dealing  with 
the  period  as  a  whole,  not  for  the  special  student  of  a  single  author.  Thus,  the  graduate  student 
who  is  working  on  a  dissertation  will  need  more  inclusive  bibliographies  than  are  here  given. 
Many  important  books  and  monographs  are  therefore  omitted  in  order  not  to  render  the  bibli- 
ography so  bulky  as  to  be  confusing.  The  test  of  admission,  even  of  the  more  general  works,  has 
been  the  importance  of  the  book  in  the  study  of  the  character  and  thought  of  the  English  Ren- 
aissance as  expressed  in  the  literature,  not  in  the  study  of  a  special  author  or  of  a  particular 
literary  type. 

The  historical  background  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the  litera- 
ture of  the  English  Renaissance  is  best  secured  through  the  study  of 
Gardiner's  History  of  England,  volume  I,  pages  1-43.  This  account  is 
compact  and  weighty,  but  of  great  interest  to  students  of  literature  as  well 
as  of  politics.  Creighton's  Age  of  Elizabeth  is  a  convenient  and  interest- 
ing brief  account.  Froude's  History  may  now  be  had  in  Everyman's 
Library;  the  section  from  it  published  under  the  title  Queen  Elizabeth 

11 


12 

is  in  five  volumes.  More  recent  and  also  more  trustworthy  are  the  single 
volume  histories  of  the  period  by  Pollard  and  Innes;  these  deal  particularly 
with  politics.  The  great  authority  on  the  history  of  the  period,  both 
English  and  continental,  is  the  Cambridge  Modern  History,  volumes  I-III. 

On  the  Renaissance  in  general  a  brief  account,  interesting  but  at  times 
ill-informed  and  badly  proportioned,  is  supplied  by  Edith  Sichel's  volume  in 
the  Home  University  Library.  Vernon  Lee's  Euphorion  and  Walter  Pater's 
The  Renaissance  are  invaluable,  but  they  are  for  students  who  already 
possess  considerable  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  standard  work  on 
the  Italian  Renaissance  is  that  by  J.  A.  Symonds,  particularly  the  two 
volumes  dealing  with  Italian  literature.  The  principal  German  work  on 
the  subject,  by  Jakob  Burckhardt,  is  available  hi  an  English  translation. 
Villari's  Life  and  Times  of  Machiavelli  is  also  a  work  of  the  highest  value. 
Other  useful  books  are  Boulton's  Tasso  and  his  Times;  Sichel's  Michel  de 
Montaigne,  and  Hume's  The  Great  Lord  Burghley.  Professor  Fletcher's 
little  volume  on  Dante,  in  the  Home  University  Library,  supplies  a  useful 
exposition  of  much  of  the  thought  which  influenced  the  period.  An  Intro- 
duction to  the  Study  of  the  Renaissance,  by  L.  F.  Field,  may  also  be  con- 
sulted. 

On  the  social  aspects  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  consult  Traill's  Social  Eng- 
land, volume  III;  Stephenson's  Shakespeare's  London  and  The  Elizabethan 
People;  Rolfe's  Shakespeare  the  Boy;  and  such  works  on  dramatic  history 
as  Chambers'  Mediaeval  Stage  and  Gayley's  Plays  of  our  Forefathers.  Origi- 
nal sources  are  supplied  in  such  collections  as  Letters  of  Eminent  Literary 
Men  (Camden  Society  Publications,  volume  XXIII);  Robert  Laneham's 
Letter,  with  the  valuable  introduction  by  F.  J.  Furnival  (Early  English 
Text  Society) ;  Harington's  Nugce  Antiques;  and  letters  such  as  the  Sidney 
Correspondence,  edited  by  Pears.  See  also  the  essay  on  Bruno  in  England, 
in  Elton's  Modern  Studies,  for  light  on  conditions  in  London  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  To  these  should  be  added  not  only  the  chapters  on  the  Courtier 
and  allied  subjects  in  Einstein's  Italian  Renaissance  in  England  but  special 
monographs  like  Howard's  English  Travellers  in  the  Renaissance  and 
Sheavyn's  The  Literary  Profession  in  England  in  the  Sixteenth  and  Seven- 
teenth Centuries.  Jusserand,  Ten  Brink,  Morley  (English  Writers,  volume 
IX),  and  Courthope  are  the  best  sources  of  information  among  the  histories 


13 

of  literature.  Special  fields  are  covered  by  Merrick  Whitcomb's  Literary 
Source  Book  of  the  Italian  Renaissance;  Robinson  and  Rolfe's  Petrarch; 
Sir  Sidney  Lee's  The  French  Renaissance  in  England;  Upham's  French  In- 
fluence in  English  Literature;  and  Scott's  Elizabethan  Translations  from  the 
Italian  (Houghton,  1916). 

Interesting  chapters  on  Humanism  will  be  found  in  Jusserand,  Courthope, 
and  the  Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature.  The  most  convenient 
larger  authority  is  A  History  of  Classical  Scholarship,  volume  II,  by  J.  E. 
Sandys.  But  a  knowledge  of  the  spirit  of  Humanism  is  best  gained  from 
W.  H.  Woodward's  Vittorino  da  Feltre  and  Other  Humanist  Educators. 
Browning's  A  Grammarian's  Funeral,  with  the  comments  on  it  in  Griffin's 
Life  of  Robert  Browning,  may  be  read  in  connection  with  this  book.  Other 
poems  by  Browning,  such  as  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Pictor  Ignotus,  The  Bishop 
Orders  His  Tomb,  Fra  Lippo  Lippi,  will  assist  in  making  the  Renaissance 
more  vivid  to  the  student.  Of  the  highest  value  is  P.  S.  Allen's  Age  of 
Erasmus,  which  contains  chapters  on  Schools,  Monasteries,  Universities, 
Private  Life  and  Manners,  Point  of  View,  Pilgrimages,  etc.,  written,  the 
author  says,  "to  present  sketches  of  the  world  through  which  Erasmus 
passed,  and  to  view  it  as  it  appeared  to  him  and  to  his  contemporaries." 
Seebohm's  The  Oxford  Reformers,  now  available  in  Everyman's  Library, 
contains  chapters  on  Colet,  More,  and  Erasmus.  For  these  men  see  also 
Morley's  English  Writers,  volume  VII.  Biographies  of  Erasmus  are  by 
Emerton  (Heroes  of  the  Nations]  and  by  J.  A.  Froude  (Life  and  Letters  of 
Erasmus).  See  also  the  essay  by  Froude  in  Short  Studies  in  Great  Subjects. 
The  letters  of  Erasmus,  which  are  of  extraordinary  interest,  are  also  edited 
by  F.  M.  Nichols.  There  is  an  interesting  chapter  on  More  in  Lee's  Great 
Englishmen  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  and  Utopia  has  been  edited  by  W.  D. 
Armes  in  a  convenient  little  edition  published  by  Macmillan.  For  more 
special  studies  of  the  literary  aspects  of  Humanism  see  Herford's  Literary 
Relations  of  England  and  Germany  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  and  the  re- 
cently published  book,  covering  the  same  field  for  the  seventeenth  century, 
by  G.  Waterhouse.  F.  S.  Boas  has  an  authoritative  discussion  of  the 
drama  in  his  University  Drama  in  the  Tudor  Age.  There  have  been  im- 
portant articles  in  the  Modern  Language  Review  on  the  same  subject. 
Finally,  the  relations  of  Humanism  to  modern  literature  and  thought  have 


14 

been  treated  by  Professor  Irving  Babbitt  in  several  books;  see  especially 
the  chapter  "What  is  Humanism?"  in  Literature  and  the  American  College. 
Certain  books  in  other  literatures  are  essential  to  an  understanding  of 
sixteenth  century  English  Literature.  Philosophy,  especially  Platonism, 
is  an  important  subject,  involving  the  "religion  of  beauty  in  women," 
political  theory,  and  the  theory  of  poetry.  For  this  the  volume  in  Every- 
man's Library  containing  five  dialogues  by  Plato  on  poetic  inspiration  is 
convenient.  These  dialogues  form  an  introduction  to  the  study  of 
such  a  work  as  Sidney's  Defense  and  also  to  the  subject  of  love  as  treated 
in  the  sonnets  and  in  Spenser's  Hymnes.  On  both  these  subjects  consult 
Castiglione's  Courtier,  either  in  the  Tudor  Translations  edition  (Hoby's 
translation,  1561,  with  a  valuable  introduction  by  Professor  Raleigh),  or 
in  the  cheaper  edition  with  Opdycke's  translation,  published  by  Scribners. 
On  the  subject  of  "love"  see  also  Professor  Fletcher's  The  Religion  of  Beauty. 
Petrarch's  sonnets,  which  not  only  influenced  profoundly  all  the  English 
cycles  but  also  show  clearly  the  essential  elements  of  the  genre,  both  in 
form  and  in  thought,  may  be  had  in  translation  in  the  Bohn  Library.  The 
best  introduction  to  Renaissance  pastoral  is  to  be  had  through  a  study  of 
Theocritus  and  Virgil;  an  excellent  translation,  in  one  volume,  is  in  the 
Bohn  Popular  Library.  For  epic,  Virgil  is  most  important;  translations 
are  easily  accessible.  Tasso  and  Ariosto  are  translated  in  the  Bohn  Library 
and  elsewhere.  Machiavelli's  Prince  is  essential  to  an  understanding  of 
the  political  thought  of  the  period :  a  translation  may  be  had  in  Everyman's 
Library.  With  Machiavelli's  treatment  of  the  subject  should  be  compared 
that  of  Castiglione  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Courtier.  An  excellent  dis- 
cussion of  Machiavellism  is  in  Courthope;  an  account  of  the  garbled  form 
in  which  this  philosophy,  through  the  French  version  by  Gentillet  and  the 
English  translation  of  it  by  Patericke,  became  popularly  known  in  Eliza- 
bethan England,  is  in  Meyer's  monograph  on  the  influence  of  Machiavelli 
on  the  drama  (Literarhistorische  Forschungen,  volume  I).  For  additional 
material,  see  N.  H.  Thomson's  translation  of  the  Discorsi,  and  Villari's 
History  of  Florence.  Cellini'^  Autobiography,  a  colorful  account  of  Renais- 
sance life,  is  in  Everyman's  Library.  French  literature  of  the  period  is 
thoroughly  covered  in  Tilley's  Literature  of  the  French  Renaissance,  two 
volumes.  See  also  Sichel's  Montaigne  and  Tilley's  Rabelais.  The  Essais 


15 

of  Montaigne  are  in  the  World's  Classics  (Oxford),  in  the  best  translation 
(Florio,  1603).  Selections  from  French  literature  are  accessible  in  Danne- 
steter  and  Hatzfeld's  LeJSeizieme  Siecle  en  France.  Two  volumes  of  selec- 
tions from  Ronsard  and  Marot,  edited  respectively  by  Sainte-Beuve  and 
Voizard,  are  published  in  inexpensive  editions  by  Garnier  Freres,  Paris. 
The  best  edition  of  du  Bellay's  Defence  is  that  by  Henri  Chamard,  Paris, 
1904.  This  book  is  important  in  any  study  of  the  literary  criticism  of  the 
period,  and  especially  for  its  influence  on  Spenser. 

On  the  language  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth  see  Abbott's  Shakespearean 
Grammar  and  the  sections  in  such  works  as  Bradley's  Making  of  English, 
Ellis'  Early  English  Pronunciation,  Jespersen's  Progress  in  Language,  and 
the  histories  of  the  English  language  by  Wyld,  Emerson,  Lounsbury,  Krapp, 
and  others. 


II.   THE   DRAMA 

The  bibliography  of  the  Elizabethan  drama  has  reached  such  vast  pro- 
portions that  only  a  few  important  items  can  be  included  here.  For 
special  bibliographies  of  individual  dramatists  see  under  the  names  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography  and  the  full  bibliographies  hi  the  Cam- 
bridge History  of  English  Literature.  The  most  useful  history  covering  the 
period  is  that  by  F.  E.  Schelling,  in  two  volumes.  Ward's  History  of  English 
Dramatic  Literature,  hi  three  volumes,  is  valuable  for  its  complete  ab- 
stracts of  plots,  etc.  Other  authorities  in  the  general  field  are  Creizenach, 
Geschichte  des  neueren  Dramas,  and,  for  the  early  period,  Chambers,  The 
Mediaeval  Stage.  Tucker  Brooke's  The  Tudor  Drama  is  a  small  volume  deal- 
ing with  the  subject  in  an  interesting  and  somewhat  unusual  manner.  The 
most  convenient  collection  of  texts  of  the  Elizabethan  period  is  that  edited 
by  Professor  Neilson  (Houghton).  For  collections  on  a  larger  scale  and 
including  plays  difficult  to  find  elsewhere,  see  Hazlitt's  edition  of  Dodsley's 
Old  English  Plays  and  also  the  publications  of  the  Early  English  Drama 
Society  and  the  Tudor  Facsimile  Texts. 

On  the  Elizabethan  stage  see,  besides  older  works,  like  H.  B.  Baker's 
History  of  the  London  Stage,  such  recent  publications  as  Albright's  The 


16 

Shaksperean  Stage,  Murray's  English  Dramatic  Companies,  1558-1642, 
The  Elizabethan  Playhouse,  two  volumes,  by  W.  J.  Lawrence,  and  The 
Court  and  the  London  Theatres,  by  T.  S.  Graves.  Mr.  Lawrence  has  pub- 
lished valuable  reviews  and  articles  in  the  Modern  Language  Review  and 
elsewhere,  and  Professor  Graves  has  made  important  contributions  to  the 
subject  in  Modern  Philology,  Studies  in  Philology,  and  elsewhere.  See  also 
the  monographs  by  G.  F.  Reynolds,  and  Government  Regulation  of  the 
Elizabethan  Drama,  by  Dr.  Gildersleeve. 

As  to  types  of  drama,  the  best  exposition  of  the  folk  plays  and  their 
significance  is  to  be  found  in  Chambers'  Mediaeval  Stage.  The  best  treat- 
ment of  the  morality  play  (types  of  plot  structure,  characterization, 
allegory,  etc.)  is  in  R.  L.  Ramsay's  introduction  to  his  edition  of  Skelton's 
Magnyfycence  (Early  English  Text  Society).  On  this  subject  see  also  the 
book  by  W.  R.  Mackenzie  on  English  Moralities.  For  tragedy,  see  Pro- 
fessor Thorndike's  Tragedy,  in  the  Types  of  Literature.  For  comedy  no 
complete  treatment  exists,  but  C.  R.  Baskervill's  English  Elements  in 
Jonson's  Comedy  and  A.  Feuillerat's  John  Lyly  treat  certain  aspects  of  the 
subject;  see  also  The  Influence  of  Jonson  on  English  Comedy,  by  Mina 
Kerr,  and  the  essays  in  the  collection  of  English  comedies  edited  by  C.  M. 
Gayley.  The  technique  of  romantic  comedy  has  received  little  attention. 
For  the  masques,  see  the  various  articles  by  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  and  the  volume 
Court  Masques  of  James  I,  by  Mary  Sullivan. 

The  Publications  of  the  New  Shakspere  Society  and  the  Jahrbuch  pub- 
lished by  the  German  society  contain  a  great  deal  of  material,  very  unequal 
in  value.  But  the  Jahrbuch  is  indispensable  as  a  bibliography  of  current 
monographs  and  books  on  all  phases  of  Elizabethan  literature. 

The  Elizabethan  drama  is  a  vast  literature  in  itself,  and  it  may  be  studied 
in  various  ways.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  student  who  seeks  in  it- 
means  for  understanding  the  mind  of  the  Renaissance,  matters  of  technique 
are  of  secondary  importance,  as  is  also  the  critical  valuation  of  separate 
dramas  or  of  the  work  of  individual  dramatists.  Such  a  student  may 
approach  the  material  from  three  points  of  view.  In  the  first  place,  themes 
or  topics  which  are  of  importance  in  other  forms  of  literature  find  ad- 
ditional illustration  in  the  drama.  Thus,  Skelton's  Magnyfycence  becomes 
interesting  not  as  a  dramatic  production  but  as  a  treatment  of  a  theme 


17 

found  in  Elyot's  Governour,  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  Bacon's  Essays,  and  in 
the  entire  literature  of  courtiership.  Or,  Lyly's  Endimion  may  be  con- 
sidered, not  merely  as  an  admirable  example  of  the  new  English  comedy, 
but  as  illustrative  of  the  tendency  to  use  old  story  to  present  in  allegorical 
form  some  contemporary  situation  and  even  to  show  what  the  author 
thought  of  that  situation;  from  this  point  of  view  it  is  to  be  compared 
with  Mother  Hubberds  Tale  and  the  fifth  book  of  the  Faerie  Queene.  Once 
more,  Shakspere's  treatment  of  pastoral  conventions  in  a  play  like  As  You 
Like  It,  or  his  treatment  of  the  "love"  of  the  sonnet  cycles,  as  in  Twelfth 
Night  or  Romeo  and  Juliet  or  The  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  may  be  com- 
pared with  pastoral  and  sonnet  as  Renaissance  "kinds."  Or  again,  a 
study  of  classicism  in  the  Renaissance  would  include  not  only  the  works  of 
the  Humanists,  the  critical  theories  of  Sidney,  or  the  learning  of  Bacon, 
but  also  the  Sejanus  of  Jonson  and  the  Antony  and  Cleopatra  of  Shakspere. 
Considered  from  this  standpoint,  Elizabethan  drama  may  be  studied,  not 
as  a  special  form,  following  a  certain  technique,  but  as  a  body  of  material 
illustrating  all  sorts  of  topics  and  themes  which  interested  the  writers  and 
the  public  of  that  time. 

In  the  second  place,  the  drama  is  a  mine  of  wealth  for  the  study  of  the 
life  and  customs  of  the  time.  Plays  like  Henry  IV,  Every  Man  in  His 
Humour,  The  Shoemaker's  Holiday,  Bartholomew  Fair,  The  Alchemist,  Hyde 
Park,  abound  in  illustrations  of  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  character  and 
life.  It  is  not  necessary  to  confine  attention  to  such  dramas  as  are  chiefly 
realistic  in  tone;  dramatized  romances  like  Twelfth  Night  or  As  You  Like 
It  also  afford  material. 

But  there  is  a  third  method  of  study  which  is  more  valuable  than  these. 
Elizabethan  literature,  like  all  true  literature,  is  an  expression  of  what 
great  writers  of  that  time  thought  about  life.  In  the  drama  Eliza- 
bethan literature  found  consummate  expression.  This  dramatic  literature, 
therefore,  is  important  not  merely  from  the  technical  standpoint  but 
as  a  means  for  understanding  the  Renaissance.  In  such  a  study  it 
is  best  to  begin  with  Marlowe,  particularly  with  his  Tamburlaine  and 
Doctor  Faustus,  expressions  of  Renaissance  thirst  for  power,  for  beauty, 
and  for  intellectual  domination.  Shakspere's  Richard  III  and  Macbeth  are 
expositions  of  Machiavellism;  Hotspur  is  an  epic  character,  a  seeker  after 


18 

personal  distinction;  John  of  Gaunt  and  Faulconbridge  voice  the  new 
English  nationalism,  while  Henry  V  is  an  incarnation  of  it.  The  story  of 
Othello  is  almost  a  morality  —  Mephisto  seeking  the  soul  of  Faustus  or 
Satan  warring  on  innocence  and  beauty  as  hi  Paradise  Lost.  Lear  should 
be  studied  as  a  complement  to  Tamburlaine;  the  romance  that  in  the 
earlier  play  invests  place  and  power  is  in  this  greatest  of  tragedies  dis- 
pelled; it  is  the  climax  in  a  series  of  dramas  in  which,  hi  one  way  or  an- 
other, Shakspere  subjected  Renaissance  passion  for  glory  to  searching 
analysis.  From  another  point  of  view,  ^iakspere's  plays  represent  the 
intense  interest  hi  personality  characteristic  sixteenth  century.  In 

the  medieval  period  man  as  an  individual  h  uo  value;  hi  Shakspere  as 
in  the  Faerie  Queene  or  the  Book  of  the  Courtier  and  in  Renaissance  thought 
generally  the  development  of  a  man's  personality  was  a  subject  of  sur- 
passing interest.  To  the  conception  of  virtu,  praised  by  Marlowe,  and  the 
nationalism  and  the  study  of  personality  in  Shakspere's  plays,  should  be 
added  the  classical  tragedy  of  Jonson,  a  tragedy  of  types  rather  than  of 
individuals,  and  also  Jorison's  satire  of  the  materialism  of  the  later  Ren- 
aissance in  Volpone  and  The  Alchemist,  and  Massinger's  and  Shirley's 
even  more  realistic  criticism  in  A  New  Way  and  the  Lady  of  Pleasure  or 
Hyde  Park.  Volpone  is  beast  fable  cast  in  the  mould  of  classical  comedy; 
The  Akhemist  is  a  scathing  arraignment  of  what  Marlowe's  lust  for  wealth 
and  power  may  degenerate  into;  A  New  Way  might  have  had  for  a  sub- 
title "The  Getters,"  because  of  its  portrayal  of  the  self-made  man  who 
thinks  his  money  will  purchase  anything,  while  A  Lady  of  Pleasure  should 
have  for  a  sub- title  "The  Spenders,"  three  generations  removed  from 
Tamburlaine  the  pioneer,  and  one  generation  from  Sir  Giles  Overreach. 
To  sum  up,  the  study  of  the  Elizabethan  drama  as  representative  of  the 
thought  of  the  Renaissance  should  include  the  following  plays:  Tambur- 
laine and  Faustus;  Richard  II,  John,  Henry  IV,  and  Henry  V;  Richard  HI, 
Macbeth,  Lear,  Sejanus;  Othello;  Volpone,  The  Akhemist,  A  New  Way, 
ind  either  A  Lady  of  Pleasure  or  Hyde  Park.  But  to  this  list  any 
number  of  additions  may  be  made. 


19 

III.   SPENSER 

Many  important  articles  on  Spenser  have  appeared  in  recent  years  in 
the  Publications  of  the  Modern  Language  Association,  Modern  Philology, 
The  Modern  Language  Review,  and  elsewhere.  The  Oxford  Spenser  is  an 
excellent  single  volume  text. 

For  material  essential  to  the  preliminary  study  of  Spenser,  such  as  pastoral, 
sonnet,  Platonism,  Renaissance  epic,  see  the  preceding  sections  of  this 
bibliography.  For  English  pastoral  antedating  Spenser  texts  may  be 
found  as  follows:  Barclay  in  ¥ercy  Society  Publications,  volume  XXII; 
Googe  in  Arber's  Engli^r  hits.  On  the  sonnet  consult  also  Sir  Sidney 
Lee's  introduction  to  the  Vo.  ines  of  Elizabethan  sonnets  republished  from 
Arber's  English  Garner.  In  both  pastoral  and  sonnet,  however,  the  most 
profitable  means  of  approach  is  through  reading  in  the  foreign  authors 
from  whom  the  English  poets  drew  their  inspiration  and  much  of  their 
material.  Herford's  introduction  to  his  edition  of  the  Shepheards  Calender, 
for  example,  will  be  much  better  understood  if  it  is  read  in  connection  with 
the  pastorals  of  Theocritus  and  Virgil,  accessible  in  inexpensive  form  in  the 
Bohn  Popular  Library  (Macmillan).  Such  reading  will  also  help  in  the 
study  of  Milton's  pastorals.  In  connection  with  the  Amoretti  of  Spenser 
the  following  works  should  be  used:  Fletcher's  Dante  (Home  University 
Library) ;  Petrarch's  Sonnets  (Bohn) ;  Wyatt  and  Surrey  (Padelford's  Early 
Sixteenth  Century  Lyrics  or  the  edition  of  Tottel  in  Arber's  English  Re- 
prints); Shakspere's  Sonnets  (editions  by  Beeching  or  Rolfe  or  the  new 
variorum  edition  by  Alden),  and  Spenser's  Fowre  Hymnes  (the  edition  by 
L.  Winstanley,  Cambridge  University  Press,  is  the  best,  and  contains  an 
extremely  valuable  introduction). 

For  the  Faerie  Queene  there  are  several  avenues  of  approach.  For  the 
native  and  medieval  elements  in  it,  Malory's  Morte  Darthur  and  the  High 
History  of  the  Holy  Grail,  both  in  Everyman's  Library,  are  indispensable. 
For  the  allegory,  besides  the  usual  references,  see  Ramsay's  introduction 
to  his  edition  of  Skelton's  Magnyfycence.  The  debt  of  Spenser  to  Skelton, 
especially  in  Books  I  and  II,  is  beyond  question.  But  Spenser's  allegory 
is  too  frequently  studied  from  examples  of  the  medieval  type;  attention 
must  also  be  paid  to  the  Renaissance  theory  of  allegory  hi  epic  poetry. 
For  this  see  not  only  his  letter  to  Raleigh  but  also  Sidney's  Defense  fedi- 


20 

tions  by  Cook  and  by  Shuckburgh);    see  also  other  criticism  in  Smith's 
Elizabethan  Critical  Essays. 

The  epics  of  Virgil,  Ariosto,  and  Tasso  should  be  studied,  not  merely  as 
sources  of  the  Faerie  Queene  but  first  as  examples  of  epic  poetry  and 
second  for  the  material  which  they  supply  for  understanding  the  problems 
of  unity,  management  of  episode,  allegory,  and  relation  to  the  conception 
of  the  ideal  hero.  On  this  last  topic  it  becomes  necessary  also  to  consider 
other  books  on  courtiership.  W.  M.  Rossetti's  Early  Italian  Courtesy 
Books  (Early  English  Text  Society),  Castiglione's  II  Cortegiano,  Elyot's 
Boke  of  the  Governour  (Everyman's  Library),  and  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Academy  (Early  English  Text  Society),  together  with  the 
chapter  on  the  courtier  in  Einstein's  Italian  Renaissance  and  Raleigh's 
introduction  to  Hoby's  translation  of  Castiglione  (Tudor  Translations),  are 
all  easily  accessible  and  put  the  student  in  possession  of  certain  fundamental 
ideas  which  governed  Spenser.  Of  the  Faerie  Queene  itself,  the  first  book 
is  best  for  the  study  of  medieval  elements  in  Spenser's  work,  and  the  fifth 
as  a  perfect  example  of  the  Renaissance  conception  of  allegorical  epic. 
Books  I  and  II  have  recently  been  admirably  edited  by  L.  Winstanley 
(Cambridge  University  Press);  unfortunately,  no  adequate  edition  of 
Books  III- VI  exists. 

Additional  references:  Morley's  English  Writers,  volume  IX;  Saints- 
bury's  English  Prosody,  volume  I,  chapter  v;  Dowden  in  Transcripts  and 
Studies;  Harper's  Sources  of  the  British  Chronicle  History  in  the  Faerie 
Queene;  Woodberry's  The  Torch;  MackaiFs  Springs  of  Helicon,  pages 
71-134;  Kuhns,  The  Source  of  the  Infinite  (for  Platonism);  introduction 
to  the  Oxford  Spenser. 

IV.   BACON 

The  standard  edition  of  Bacon  is  that  by  Spedding,  Ellis,  and  Heath,  in 
fourteen  volumes.  This  contains,  besides  the  major  works,  the  letters 
and  fragments  which  enable  the  student  to  compare  similar  passages  as 
they  occur  in  various  places.  As  Bacon  is  a  weighty  and  compact  writer, 
such  comparison  is  frequently  necessary  in  order  to  understand  his  exact 
meaning,  as,  for  example,  in  the  often-quoted  but  usually  misunderstood 
sentence,  "I  have  taken  all  knowledge  to  be  my  province." 


21 

Of  the  major  works,  the  best  edition  of  the  Essays  for  the  advanced 
student  is  that  by  S.  H.  Reynolds  (Oxford).  Of  school  editions  the  most 
complete  is  that  by  M.  A.  Scott.  The  Advancement  of  Learning  and  the 
New  Atlantis  are  in  an  attractive  small  volume  in  the  World's  Classics, 
but  without  notes;  the  best  annotated  edition  of  the  Advancement  is  that 
by  W.  A.  Wright  (Oxford),  of  the  Atlantis,  by  G.  C.  Moore-Smith  (Cam- 
bridge). For  criticism  of  Bacon  see  the  article  in  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography  and  also  the  very  full  account  of  his  political  career  in  Gardiner's 
History  of  England.  There  is  also  an  essay  by  Sidney  Lee  in  his  Great 
Englishmen. 

There  are  various  methods  of  approach  to  the  study  of  Bacon.  From 
the  standpoint  of  the  aims  and  methods  of  higher  education,  it  is  best  to 
begin  with  Humanism:  Woodward's  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  Erasmus,  Ascham 
(the  best  edition  of  his  works  is  by  W.  Aldis  Wright,  Cambridge  English 
Classics'),  Elyot's  Governour,  and  Gilbert's  Queen  Elizabeth's  Academy. 
To  these  may  be  added,  as  a  further  representation  of  the  standpoint  of 
Elyot  and  Gilbert,  Castiglione's  Courtier.  The  subject  culminates,  for  the 
Renaissance,  in  Milton.  For  Bacon,  not  only  such  essays  as  the  one  on 
"Studies,"  but  the  far  more  important  passages  in  the  Advancement  of 
Learning  are  required.  To  see  clearly  his  point  of  view,  acquaintance  with 
the  theories  and  methods  of  scholasticism  is  necessary  (Sandys,  History  of 
Classical  Scholarship).  The  reasons  for  his  criticism  of  Aristotle,  both 
educational  and  scientific,  will  then  become  apparent.  In  the  Advance- 
ment is  not  only  criticism  which  applies  to  much  college  teaching  to-day  but 
also  anticipation  of  some  of  the  best  elements  of  modern  higher  education, 
and  an  inspiring  idealism  for  college  students. 

Closely  akin  to  this  subject  is  Bacon's  conception  of  the  importance  of 
scientific  studies.  Preparation  for  the  study  of  this  conception  may  be 
through  the  medieval  attitude  toward  science:  from  a  multitude  of  illus- 
trations the  story  of  Roger  Bacon  (on  which  compare  Greene's  Friar  Bacon 
and  Friar  Bungay),  and  the  story  of  Faust  (compare  Marlowe's  drama) 
may  be  considered.  Bacon's  own  ideas  must  be  collected  from  his  writ- 
ings, and  will  be  found  interesting  for  his  anticipation  of  laboratory  methods 
of  instruction  and  also  for  his  insistence  on  the  value  of  science  as  a  means 
for  increasing  the  efficiency  and  comfort  of  life. 


22 

Bacon's  political  theory  is  to  be  approached  from  two  viewpoints:  first, 
his  relation  to  Machiavellism,  a  constant  influence  in  his  works,  and, 
second,  his  conception  of  the  relationship  between  the  crown  and  parlia- 
ment. For  the  second  topic,  acquaintance  with  the  political  conditions 
in  his  own  time  is  necessary,  on  which  see  Gardiner's  History  of  England. 

As  to  Bacon's  personal  character,  concerning  which  such  diverse  views 
have  been  expressed,  the  Essays  and  the  Advancement  give  abundant  ma- 
terial for  study,  this  material  to  be  supplemented  by  study  of  his  letters, 
his  state  papers,  and  the  record  of  his  deeds. 

Other  topics  for  study  are  Bacon's  style,  on  which  compare  other  Eliza- 
bethan prose;  his  literary  criticism;  Bacon  and  Montaigne;  the  evolution 
of  the  essays,  studied  through  the  editions  of  1597,  1612,  and  1625;  imagi- 
nary commonwealths;  the  relation  of  passages  in  the  Essays  to  passages  in 
his  other  works. 

V.   OTHER  ELIZABETHAN  PROSE 

On  the  novel  see,  besides  the  works  named  in  the  Outline,  the  following: 
Chandler,  The  Literature  of  Roguery  (for  the  picaresque  novel);  Deloney? 
Works,  edited  by  F.  0.  Mann;  John  Lyly  by  A.  Feuillerat.  An  edition  of 
Sidney's  works,  by  A.  Feuillerat,  is  in  process  of  publication;  the  1580 
edition  of  Arcadia  has  already  appeared.  Many  of  the  prose  romances 
are  difficult  to  obtain.  For  those  used  by  Shakspere,  see  Furness'  Variorum. 
Greene's  works,  in  fifteen  volumes,  edited  by  Grosart;  Lodge's  works, 
edited  by  E.  Gosse;  and  R.  W.  Bond's  edition  of  Lyly  are  generally  accessi- 
ble. Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure  is  edited,  in  three  volumes,  by  J.  Jacobs. 
For  Nash,  see  the  edition  by  R.  B.  McKerrow. 

Holinshed  may  be  best  studied  in  Shakespeare's  Holinshed,  edited  by 
W.  G.  Boswell-Stone.  No  modern  edition  of  Raleigh  exists;  the  best  is 
edited  by  Oldys  and  Birch,  eight  volumes.  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity 
may  be  had  in  Everyman;  annotated  editions  of  Book  I,  by  R.  W.  Church, 
and  of  Book  V,  by  R.  Bayne,  are  accessible. 

For  literary  criticism  see,  besides  Gregory  Smith's  collection  of  Elizabethan 
critical  essays  and  Spingarn's  Literary  Criticism  in  the  Renaissance,  the  collec- 
tion of  seventeenth  century  critical  essays  edited  by  Professor  Spingarn  and 
also  Saintsbury's  History  of  English  Criticism.  Acquaintance  with  Aristotle  is 


23 

essential  to  the  understanding  of  literary  criticism  in  the  Renaissance ;  this 
may  be  gained  through  a  study  of  the  translations  and  commentaries 
by  Butcher  and  Atwater,  or  in  the  brief  but  exceedingly  useful  volume 
Aristotle  on  the  Art  of  Poetry  by  Lane  Cooper. 

VI.   POETS  FROM  SPENSER  TO  MILTON 

Gascoigne's  works  are  edited  by  J.  W.  Cunliffe  in  the  Cambridge  Eng- 
lish Classics.  For  Drayton,  consult  0.  Elton's  book  on  the  subject;  selec- 
tions from  his  works  are  edited  by  A.  H.  Bullen,  by  E.  Brett  (best  edition), 
and,  including  selections  from  Daniel,  by  H.  C.  Beeching.  Grierson's 
Oxford  edition  of  Donne  is  the  best;  others  are  by  Grosart  and  Chambers. 
The  best  edition  of  Herrick  is  that  by  F.  W.  Moorman;  the  same  scholar 
has  published  a  biography  of  Herrick.  Everyman's  Library  contains  the 
Hesperides.  A.  B.  Grosart  has  published  editions  of  Daniel  and  of  Giles 
and  Phineas  Fletcher.  The  standard  edition  of  Herbert  is  that  by  G.  H. 
Palmer.  See  also  Walton's  Lives  of  Herbert  and  Donne.  A  convenient 
selection  from  Waller  is  edited  by  G.  T.  Drury  in  the  Muses  Library.  On 
Waller's  influence  on  the  development  of  classicism  see  Gosse's  From 
Shakespeare  to  Pope  and  his  Seventeenth  Century  Studies.  These  books  also 
contain  essays  on  other  writers  of  this  period.  The  standard  edition  of 
Cowley  is  that  by  A.  R.  Waller;  the  Essays  are  also  edited  by  A.  B.  Gough. 

VII.   SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  PROSE 

The  standard  edition  of  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  is  that  by  A. 
R.  Shilleto  (Bohn).  Sir  Thomas  Brown's  works  are  edited  by  A.  R.  Waller; 
selections  are  in  Everyman's  Library.  For  Bunyan,  see  the  biographies 
by  W.  Hale  White  and  J.  A.  Froude.  A  valuable  dissertation  on  the 
Sources  of  Bunyan's  Allegories  is  by  J.  B.  Wharey  (University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania). Walton's  Compkat  Angler  is  in  Everyman's  Library. 

VIII.   MILTON 

Important  editions  of  the  poems  are  those  by  D.  Masson,  three  volumes; 
by  W.  A.  Wright  (Cambridge);  by  H.  C.  Beeching  (Oxford),  which  re- 
stores the  spelling  of  editions  issued  in  Milton's  time;  and  by  W.  Vaughn 
Moody  (Houghton).  An  admirably  annotated  edition  of  Paradise  Lost  is 


24 

that  by  A.  W.  Verity  (Cambridge  University  Press).  The  prose  may  be 
found  in  the  Bohn  Library;  selections  are  numerous.  Annotated  editions 
of  the  Areopagitica  are  by  J.  W.  Hales  (Oxford)  and  in  the  Riverside  Liter- 
ature Series.  Other  biographies  are  those  by  R.  Garnett  (with  a  useful 
bibliography)  and  by  W.  P.  Trent.  For  versification  see  Milton's  Prosody, 
by  Robert  Bridges,  and  an  essay  in  Masson's  edition  of  the  poems.  For 
the  literary  history  of  the  period  see  J.  H.  B.  Masterman's  The  Age  of 
Milton.  Important  studies  on  special  topics  are  C.  G.  Osgood's  The 
Classical  Mythology  of  Milton's  English  Poems,  and  Good's  Studies  in  the 
Milton  Tradition,  a  study  of  Milton's  fame  published  by  the  University  of 
Illinois.  For  excellent  general  criticism  see  the  essay  in  the  Springs  of 
Helicon,  by  J.  W.  Mackail;  the  essay  in  Woodberry's  The  Torch;  and 
Studies  in  Milton,  by  Alden  Sampson.  Essays  on  Milton,  a  volume  by 
E.  N.  S.  Thompson  which  deals  with  the  epic  structure  and  theme  of 
Paradise  Lost,  has  recently  been  published  by  the  Yale  University  Press. 
There  is  also  a  thorough  study  of  Milton's  Ready  and  Easy  Way  to  Establish 
a  Free  Commonwealth  in  the  Yale  Studies  in  English.  See  also  Addison's 
criticism  of  Paradise  Lost  in  The  Spectator  and  Coleridge's  Seven  Lectures  on 
Shakespeare  and  Milton. 

In  Milton's  time  English  literature,  like  English  life,  was  traversed  by 
many  currents.  The  old  drama  had  passed  —  after  1642  the  theatres  were 
closed.  Herrick  was  the  last  of  the  shepherds  in  Arcady.  Poetry  had 
lost  its  former  authority  over  the  minds  of  men.  A  new  conception 
of  classicism  was  gaining  volume  and  was  destined  to  rule  English 
literature  for  a  century.  But  in  Milton  sounded  clearly  the  last  great 
voice  of  the  Renaissance.  In  his  life  and  works  is  found  expression,  al- 
ways authentic,  often  final,  of  each  of  the  great  " notes"  of  the  period 
which  he  brought  to  a  close.  There  is  medievalism,  as  in  Spenser,  made  to 
phrase  the  thought  of  his  tune;  there  is  the  exaltation  of  the  individual, 
as  in  Marlowe  and  Shakspere;  there  is  the  fusion  of  pagan  and  Christian 
thought,  shown  in  his  pastoral  poetry,  in  the  Hymn,  and  in  Paradise  Lost; 
there  is  the  assimilation  of  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  classics,  represented 
among  the  Elizabethans  by  Ben  Jonson;  there  is  the  doctrine  that  the 
man  of  parts,  true  courtier,  should  serve  the  state,  a  doctrine  that  per- 
meates Renaissance  thought;  and  there  is  the  lofty  conception  of  the  poet's 


25 

function,  so  often  dwelt  upon  by  Sidney,  Spenser,  and  their  contemporaries, 
here  so  completely  illustrated  by  his  life  and  writings  as  to  render  him  a 
vates  or  seer.  Political  idealism,  the  worship  of  Beauty,  the  use  of  symbol 
and  allegory,  the  regard  for  epic  as  the  highest  of  the  "kinds,"  the  verse, 
are  other  Renaissance  characteristics  which  may  be  studied  hi  his  works. 

Suggestions  for  the  study  of  these  topics  may  be  found  in  the  analyses 
of  Milton's  works  in  the  body  of  this  Outline.  The  topics  may  be  roughly 
classified  under  four  heads:  Milton's  learning,  and  the  sources  of  his 
poetry;  his  personality  and  his  stress  on  individualism;  his  conception  of 
the  poet's  function;  and  his  style.  For  the  study  of  the  first  group,  the 
materials  are  both  autobiographical  and  critical.  The  reprinted  portions 
of  his  notebooks,  showing  his  study  of  possible  subjects,  may  be  found  in 
Masson;  to  these  should  be  added  autobiographical  passages  in  his  letters 
and  tracts.  The  Latin  elegies  and  many  of  the  English  poems  also  con- 
tain passages  important  for  the  light  they  throw  on  his  reading.  To  these 
add  such  topics  as  his  use  of  medieval  material,  particularly  shown  in  pas- 
sages embodying  religious  doctrine,  and  his  habit  of  fusing  pagan  and 
Christian  material,  of  which  the  Hymn  and  Lyeidas  give  familiar  examples. 
Here  Milton  should  be  compared  with  Spenser.  The  culmination  of  this 
research  consists  in  a  study  of  his  classical  learning  and  the  use  he  made 
of  it.  Of  the  three  aspects  under  which  the  classics  appear  in  the  English 
Renaissance:  the  revival  of  study  of  the  ancient  masterpieces,  represented 
in  the  Tudor  Humanists;  the  romantic  re-working  of  classical  stories, 
shown  in  Lyly,  Shakspere,  Spenser,  and  in  many  other  places;  and  the 
adaptation  of  Humanism,  as  Jonson  had  seen  it,  to  life,  Milton  represents 
the  third.  Sejanits  and  Samson  Agonistes,  for  example,  may  be  compared 
with  each  other,  with  Greek  tragedy,  with  the  romantic  classicism  of 
Shakspere,  and  with  the  later  classicism  of  Dryden  and  Pope.  The  key 
to  the  study  here  is  hi  the  relation  between  Jonson  and  Milton. 

The  second  topic  may  be  approached  through  the  study  of  Milton's  own 
personality,  shown  through  the  autobiographical  portions  of  his  poems,  his 
tracts,  and  unconsciously  throughout  his  work.  This  will  reveal  a  man 
cast  in  the  mould  of  the  Renaissance,  like  Sidney  or  Cellini  or  Marlowe  or 
Machiavelli,  however  restrained  he  may  have  been  through  his  Puritanism. 
But  the  complete  study  of  the  topic  involves  also  the  consideration  of 


26 

Milton's  great  characters,  Satan  and  Samson.  From  both  phases  of  the 
study,  Marlowe  is  the  man  of  the  earlier  Renaissance  with  whom  Milton 
is  to  be  compared. 

The  third  topic  involves  a  review  of  all  that  has  been  studied  relative  to 
the  Renaissance  conception  of  the  poet  and  his  function.  See,  for  ex- 
ample, Castiglione's  Courtier,  Sidney's  Defense,  Spenser's  theory  of  the  poet 
and  his  work.  To  this  add  all  that  has  been  learned  concerning  the  political 
idealism  of  the  Renaissance  poets,  the  service  which  learning  ought  to 
render  to  the  state,  the  mystical  conception  of  beauty.  Here  material  is 
abundant  hi  Milton's  works;  he  should  be  compared  especially  with 
Sidney  and  Spenser. 

The  fourth  group  is  capable  of  indefinite  extension.  Symbol  and  alle- 
gory, so  characteristic  of  the  Renaissance,  are  abundant :  there  is  the  formal 
symbolism  of  the  medieval  type,  illustrated,  for  example,  hi  his  Sin  and 
Death;  there  is  also  the  interpretation  of  current  conditions  through  the 
medium  of  ancient  story,  as  hi  Samson  Agonistes.  Here,  again,  the  key  to 
the  study  is  found  in  Spenser.  Furthermore,  Milton's  conception  of  the 
epic  is  to  be  studied  through  comparison  not  only  with  Virgil  but  also  with 
Spenser  and  Tasso;  it  is  also  to  be  studied  hi  what  Milton  himself  said 
about  the  subject.  Finally,  Milton's  verse  is  of  the  Renaissance;  it  re- 
creates the  evolution  of  prosody  through  that  period.  This  may  be  seen, 
for  example,  through  tracing  his  narrative  verse  from  the  Marlowesque 
passages  in  the  first  two  books  of  Paradise  Lost  through  various  stages  hi 
Paradise  Lost  and  Paradise  Regained  to  the  marvelously  flexible  yet  subtle 
metre  of  Samson  Agonistes.  On  this  Mr.  Moody's  analysis  of  the  versifica- 
tion of  Milton's  classical  tragedy  will  be  found  helpful.  The  material 
for  comparison  should  be  drawn  from  Marlowe,  Shakspere,  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  and  Webster  and  Ford.  The  Elizabethan  quality  of  his  verse 
may  be  made  clear  by  contrast  with  that  of  Dryden  and  Pope. 


27 


CHRONOLOGICAL  OUTLINES 


28 
THE  RENAISSANCE 

I.     Changes  influencing  the  Literature  of  the  Sixteenth  Century 

1.  In  language:  such  as  (a)  changes  in  pronunciation  due  for  ex- 
ample to  the  dropping  of  final  e  as  a  separately  sounded  syllable; 
metrical  regularity  of  Chaucer's  verse  no  longer  appreciated; 
(6)  the  consequent  breaking  down  of  old  metrical  standards  and 
the  introduction  of  freakish  forms  ("Poulter's  measure";   "Skel- 
tonic"  verse,  etc.).     Later  in  the  century,  the  attempt  to  adapt 
classical  quantitative  verse  to  English  (The  Areopagus,  etc.). 

2.  In  thought :  such  as  (a)  the  new  nationalism,  due  to  the  political 
changes  made  by  Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth;  (6)  the  revival  of 
interest  in  the  classics  (Humanism)  which  had  been  almost  un- 
known in  the  Middle  Ages;  (c)  cosmopolitanism,  due  to  travel; 
the  influence  of  Italy  and  France,  reflected  in  Chaucer,  again 
becomes  prominent. 

3.  In  literary  themes:  such  as  the  introduction  of  the  sonnet  and 
other  forms  of  subjective  literature;  the  pastoral;  the  new  theory 
of  the  epic;  the  novel;  the  essay;  the  drama. 

II.     Early  Humanism  in  England 

1.  Humphrey  of  Gloucester  (1391-1447) 

2.  Colet  (1466-1519)  and  Erasmus  (1465-1536) 

3.  Sir  Thomas  More  (1478-1535) 

(a)    Utopia   (Latin  version,   1516;  English  translation  by 
Ralph  Robinson,  1551) 

4.  Early  translations  from  the  classics 

(a)  Phaer's  Aeneid  (1558-1562).     Two  books  of  the  Aeneid 
also  translated  by  Surrey,  in  blank  verse. 
(6)  Seneca  was  translated  by  Jasper  Heywood  and  others, 
1581. 

(c)  North's  Plutarch  (1579)  was  famous  for  its  influence  "on 
Shakspere. 


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30 

HI.     Transitional  Poetry  of  the  Early  Sixteenth  Century 

1.  John  Skelton  (c.  1460-1529) 

(a)  Author  of  various  translations  and  adaptations  of  human- 
istic works. 

(6)  Influenced  by  Chaucer  in  Garlande  of  Laurell,  a  medley 
of  all  sorts  of  material,  but  in  lively  metre;  and  in  the  more 
important  Bowge  of  Courte,  an  allegory  owing  something  to 
Chaucer,  something  to  the  "ship"  allegory  of  Brant  and 
Barclay. 

(c)  Phillyp  Sparowe,  a  story  of  the  death  and  burial  of  a  pet 
sparrow;  travesty,  incoherent  structure,  "Skeltonic"  verse. 
Written  to  please  a  patron. 

(d)  Colyn  Clout,  a  satire  of  the  clergy  from  the  point  of  view 
of  a  layman. 

(e)  Why  come  ye  nat  to  courtel  a  bitter  invective  against 
Wolsey. 

(/)  Magnyfycence,  a  morality  play  but  with  probably  direct 
application  to  political  matters. 

(g)  Skelton's  verse  is  usually  written  in  two-accent  lines, 
irregular  in  unaccented  syllables,  and  with  rhymes  rambling 
through  any  number  of  lines. 

2.  Alexander  Barclay  (c.  1475-1552) 

(a)  The  Ship  of  Fools  (1509)  a  translation,  with  many  addi- 
w~»  *+y~*  »*•  tions,  of  the  Narrenschiff  of  Sebastian  Brant;  satire  of  all 
sorts  of  folly,  shown  by  women,  clerics,  beggars  and  vaga- 
bonds ;  full  of  classical  and  biblical  allusions  and  many  proverbs ; 
scurrilous;  vivid  picture  of  contemporary  life;  shows  niter- 
relation  of  Germany  and  England  in  early  sixteenth  century. 
(6)  Eclogues  (c.  1514).  Five  pastoral  eclogues  translated 
from  Mantuan  and  Aeneas  Sylvius  but  with  many  additions 
and  applications  to  local  conditions;  they  treat  of  miseries 
of  court  and  the  superiority  of  country  life,  and  the  sad 
state  of  poets.  Important  as  being  the  first  examples  of 
Renaissance  pastoral  in  English,  and  have  the  characteristic 
satire  veiled  by  allegory;  they  are  racy,  homely,  vivid. 


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32 

IV.    The  Mirror  for  Magistrates 

i.  Combines  medieval  and  renaissance  elements 

(a)  Written  by  various  men,  1555  ff.;  a  series  of  medieval 
"tragedies"  similar  to  Chaucer's  Monk's  Tale  and  Boccaccio's 
De  Casibus  Virorum;  immediate  model  Lydgate's  Fall  of 
Princes  and  first  planned  as  a  re-issue  and  continuation  of 
that  work. 

(6)  Great  popularity  throughout  the  century,  and  particu- 
larly influential  on  the  drama,  thirty  historical  plays  being 
extant  which  are  based  on  stories  told  in  the  Mirror. 
(c)  Chief  importance  due  to  the  Induction  written  1563  by 
Thomas  Sackville  (who  also  collaborated  with  Norton  in 
writing  Gorboduc  [acted  1562]  a  Senecan  tragedy  in  blank 
verse);  this  Induction,  influenced  by  Chaucer  and  Virgil, 
and  perhaps  by  Dante,  notable  for  its  allegory,  its  grave 
and  musical  verse,  and  its  direct  influence  on  Spenser. 
V.     Tottel's  Miscellany  (1557) 

i.  A  collection  of  nearly  three  hundred  poems  by  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt  (1503-1542),  the  Earl  of  Surrey  (c.  1517-1547),  and  others. 
These  poems  are  mainly  (a)  sonnets  in  imitation  of  Petrarch; 
(6)  other  amoristic  lyrics,  introducing,  with  the  sonnets,  a  new 
code  of  courtly  "love";  (c)  satires,  epistles,  epigrams,  showing 
the  influence  of  the  classics  but  dealing  with  certain  conventional 
subjects,  such  as  the  superiority  of  the  country  to  the  town  and 
the  hardships  of  the  courtier's  life;  a  few,  such  as  Wyatt's  The 
Mean  and  Sure  Estate,  showing  the  influence  of  Chaucer.  By 
far  the  greater  number  are  amoristic,  and  are  written  in  the  most 
diverse  metrical  forms. 


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34 

VI.     George  Gascoigne  (c.  1525-1577) 

1.  A  poet  of  moderate  genius  whose  importance  springs  from  the 
way  in  which  he  anticipated  many  of  the  literary  activities  of  the 
Elizabethan  period. 

2.  Representative  works 

(a)  Dramatic  writings:   The  Supposes,  a  comedy  acted  in 
1566,  based  upon  a  comedy  by  Ariosto;  Jocasta,  acted  1566, 
a  tragedy  of  the  Senecan  type. 

(b)  Certayne  Notes  of  Instruction,  1575,  the  first  important 
work  of  literary  criticism  in  English. 

(c)  The  Posies,  1575,  a  collection  of  poems,  mainly  lyrical, 
on  many  subjects  and  in  many  forms. 

(d)  The  Steel  Glass,  1576,  a  satire  based  on  a  comparison 
between  the  old  steel  mirrors,   representing  the  superior 
moral   and  manners  of  an  earlier  age,  and  the  crystal  mirrors 
then  coming    into  fashion,   by  which    he  symbolizes   the 
corruption  and  follies  of  his  age.     Somewhat  in  the  manner 
of  Piers  Plowman. 

References:  On  the  changes  in  language,  etc.,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  see 
Cambridge,  III.  499-530.  On  the  general  character  of  the  Renaissance,  see 
Jusserand,  II.  3-25;  40-92;  134-149,  and  in  his  Novel  in  the  Time  of  Shakespeare, 
chapter  ii;  Einstein,  Italian  Renaissance  in  England,  chapters  ii  and  viii.  For 
Humanism,  see  Cambridge  Modern  History,  I.  chapter  vi;  Courthope,  II.  chap- 
ter i;  Cambridge,  III.  1-27;  Jusserand,  II.  76-92.  For  Tottel's  Miscellany,  see 
Jusserand  II.  134-148;  Cambridge  III.  187-206;  Courthope,  II.  chapters  ii  and 
iii;  and  the  introduction  to  Padelford's  Sixteenth  Century  Lyrics  (Heath  &  Com- 
pany). For  Gascoigne:  Cambridge,  III.  227-238;  Courthope,  II.  167-177.  A 
selection  from  the  Steel  Glass  is  to  be  found  in  Skeat's  Specimens  of  English 
Literature,  1394-1579,  pp.  312-325.  This  book  may  also  be  consulted  for  its 
selections  from  other  transitional  authors  from  Chaucer  to  Spenser. 


36 
THE  NEW  ENGLISH  POETRY 

I.     The  Influence  of  Italy  and  France 

1.  Italian  writers  important  for  their  influence  on  English  liter- 
ature in  the  sixteenth  century. 

(a)  Petrarch  (1304-1374)  His  Rime,  or  Sonetti  e  canzoni 
in  vita  di  Madonna  Laura,  a  cycle  of  207  sonnets,  inter- 
spersed with  various  other  short  lyrics,  treating  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  lover,  the  cruelty  of  his  mistress,  the  lofty  in- 
fluence of  love,  the  whole  given  the  form  of  a  cycle  through 
references  to  the  passing  of  time  and  to  incidents  of  his 
courtship.  These  sonnets  exerted  great  influence  in  France 
and  England  through  their  form,  then-  phraseology,  and  the 
Neo-Platonic  theory  of  love. 

(6)  Ariosto  (Orlando  Furioso,  1516)  and  Tasso  (Gerusalemme 
Liberata,  1575)  were  writers  of  epic  poetry  whose  works  pro- 
foundly influenced  Spenser. 

(c)  The  writers  of  novelle,  short  stories  usually  of  a  tragic 
cast,  which  formed  the  basis  for  the  many  English  collec- 
tions of  short  stories  and  also  served  as  storehouses  of  plot 
for  the  dramas. 

2.  The  influence  of  France  felt  mainly  through  the  critical  theories 
of  the  Pleiade,  through  the  pastorals  of  Marot  and  others,  and 
through  the  sonnets  and  other  lyrics  of  Ronsard,  Du  Bellay, 
Desportes. 


38 

n.    The  Sonnet 

1.  Origin.     Arose  in  Italy  near  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century; 
practiced  by  Dante,  Michelangelo,  Tasso,  Ariosto,  and  Petrarch. 
At  first,  however,  the  name  was  applied  to  any  short  amoristic 
lyric,  and  a  similar  confusion  persisted  in  England  even  in  Shaks- 
pere's  time.     Rossetti's  translation  of  the   New  Life  of  Dante 
will  illustrate  early  sonnet  forms  and  aims.     Chaucer  translated 
one  of  Petrarch's  sonnets  in  his  Troilus,  Book  1. 11.  400-420. 

2.  Form. 

(a)  True  Italian  type.     Fourteen  lines,  the  first  eight  con- 
stituting the  octave,  which  introduces  the  theme,  and  the 
last  six  the  sestet,  which  is  sub-divided  into  two  tercets. 
The  first  tercet  prepares  the  leading  idea  or  theme  of  the 
octave  for  the  conclusion  in  the  second  tercet.     See  Words- 
worth's sonnet  on  Milton  for  a  fairly  close  imitation  of  this 
form.     The  rhyme  scheme  of  the  octave  is  abba,  abba; 
less  accurately,  abba,  a  c  c  a;  of  the  sestet,  c  d  e,  c  d  e; 
or  c  d  c  d  c  d;  or  c  d  c  d  e  e. 

(b)  English  forms  in  the  sixteenth  century  fall  under  two 
main  classes:  the  Shaksperean,  consisting  of  three  quatrains 
rhyming  alternately,   and  a  concluding  couplet;  and  the 
Spenserian,  somewhat  like  the  stanza  of  the  Faerie  Queene, 
ab  ab,  b  cb  c  ,  cd  cd  ,  e  e.     Milton's  sonnets  are  correct 
in  rhyme,  but  often  careless  of  the  distinction  between  oc- 
tave and  sestet. 

3.  English  sonnet  cycles  of  the  sixteenth  century 

(a)  Wyatt,  Surrey,  Gascoigne,  Watson,  wrote  many  sonnets 
before  the  time  of  the  great  cycles;  Tottel's  collection  of 
songs  and  sonnets  was  reprinted  seven  times  by  1587; 
Shakspere  introduced  three  sonnets  into  Love's  Labour's 
Lost  and  two  in  Romeo  and  Juliet;  chief  vogue  of  the  genre 
from  1591  to  1597,  in  which  period  the  French  writers  were 
drawn  upon  quite  as  much  as  the  Italian. 
(6)  The  chief  cycles:  Sidney,  Astrophel  and  Stella,  1591, 
platonic  courtship  of  Lady  Penelope  Rich,  108  sonnets, 


40 

based  on  Petrarch,  Ronsard,  and  Desportes;  Daniel,  Delia, 
1592,  mainly  French,  some  of  them  of  high  literary  value; 
Constable,  Diana,  1592,  1594;  Barnes,  Parthenophil  and 
Parthenope,  1593;  Watson,  Tears  of  Fancie,  1593;  Giles 
Fletcher  the  Elder,  Licia,  1593,  frankly  confessed  to  be 
literary  exercises;  Lodge,  Phillis,  1593;  Dray  ton,  Idea, 
1594;  Spenser,  Amoretti,  1595,  but  some  of  them  perhaps 
written  at  a  much  earlier  date,  in  then*  present  form  repre- 
senting his  courtship  of  Elizabeth  Boyle,  whom  he  married; 
Shakspere,  Sonnets,  ca.  1594,  which  differ  from  the  other 
cycles  in  that  some  of  them  are  addressed  to  a  man  and 
others  show  distaste  for  the  conventions  of  the  genre. 
(c)  Total  number  of  amoristic  sonnets  written  during  this 
period  estimated  at  1200;  in  addition,  about  500  addressed 
to  patrons  and  as  many  on  philosophical  and  religious 
themes. 
Studies 

1.  Conventionalities  in  diction  and  tropes,  such  as  the  similes  of  the 

ship,  the  warrior,  etc.,  and  in  the  narrative  element,  "the  prologue, 
hope,  and  the  epilogue,  despair." 

2.  The  idealistic  view  of  love.     This  form  of  Elizabethan  Platonism 

especially  prominent  in  the  sonnets  of  Sidney  and  of  Spenser.  For 
the  complete  statement  of  the  religion  of  beauty,  see  Spenser's 
Four  Hymns. 

3.  The  problem  of  Shakspere's  sonnets.     Besides  the  reference  given 

above  to  Lee,  the  introductions  to  the  editions  of  the  sonnets  by 
Beeching  and  by  Rolfe  may  be  used. 

References:  On  the  general  character  of  the  sonnet  and  the  history  of  its  form, 
consult  Alden,  English  Verse,  pp.  267-297,  and  Corson,  Primer  of  English  Verse, 
pp.  143-185.  On  the  Elizabethan  sonnet,  see  Cambridge  III.  281-310  (Lee); 
Jusserand,  II.  383-419.  A  more  d'taued  :  "count  of  the  cycles  is  in  Lee's  Life 
of  Shakespeare,  s.  v.  the  sonnets  and  also  in  the  appendix.  For  the  Italian  in- 
fluence, consult  Einstein,  The  Italian  Renaissance  in  England,  and  for  the  French, 
Lee,  The  French  Renaissance  in  England,  and  Upham,  French  Influence  in  English 
Literature. 


42 

HI.    The  Pastoral 

1.  Classical  pastorals 

(a)  Theocritus  (280  B.C.).  His  Idyls  marked  by  realism  and 
by  introduction  of  themes  afterwards  characteristic  of  the 
genre,  such  as  the  singing  match,  dirge,  love-lay,  etc.  No 
allegory  or  veiled  satire. 

(6)  Virgil's  Eclogues  are  less  realistic  and  introduce  allusions 
to  life  of  the  times. 

2.  Italian  Group 

(a)  Petrarch  wrote  twelve  Latin  eclogues  1346-1356;  these 

have  strong  political  allegory.     His  eclogues  imitated  by 

Boccaccio. 

(6)  Mantuan   (1448-1516)   wrote  a  series  of  pastorals  in 

which  the  satire  of  church  and  state  is  more  pronounced. 

Some  of  these  translated  into  English  by  Barclay. 

(d)  Sannazaro's    Arcadia,    1490-1495;    consists    of    twelve 

eclogues  connected  by  passages  in  lyrical  prose;  the  most 

striking  theme  is  the   praise  of  Arcadia  as  a  refuge  from 

the  town.    Compare  Sidney's  romance,  and  As  You  Like  It. 

3.  French  Group 

(a)  Of  the  poets  who  wrote  pastorals  in  France  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  Marot  is  important  for  the  influence  he 
exerted  on  Spenser. 

4.  English  predecessors  of  Spenser 

(a)  Barclay  translated  some  of  Mantuan's  eclogues  ca.  1514. 

(b)  Googe  in  1563  wrote  eight  eclogues  loosely  connected 
by  two  narratives  running  through  them,  realistic  in  style 
and  homely  in  metre,  moral  in  intention. 

(c)  There  were  some  pastoral  elements  in  the  other  poetry 
of  the  period,  as  in  Tottel;  Chaucer  was  also  regarded  as 
a  pastoral  poet  by  Spenser  and  others. 


44 

5«  Spenser's  Shepheards  Calender,  1579.  Twelve  eclogues,  some- 
what loosely  connected  by  the  motif  of  the  seasons,  one  being 
assigned  to  each  month,  and  by  the  romance  of  Colin  (Spenser) 
and  Rosalind.  Five  of  the  eclogues  deal  with  religious  and  politi- 
cal conditions,  and  are  native  rather  than  foreign  in  source  and 
model.  The  others  imitate  conventional  pastoral  themes,  such 
as  the  singing  match,  the  praise  of  the  poet's  patron,  the  dirge, 
the  complaint  of  unrequited  love.  In  freshness,  lyric  power, 
and  thought  the  Calender  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in 
English  poetry. 
Studies 

1.  The   most  notable  eclogues  of    the  Shepheards  Calendar  are  those 

for  'February'  (religious  allegory;  fable  of  the  oak  and  the  briar, 
told  in  what  was  thought  to  be  the  style  of  Chaucer  and  in  a  four 
stress  verse  which  roughly  imitates  the  way  Chaucer's  verse  must 
have  sounded  as  pronounced  in  Spenser's  time);  'April'  (Song  in 
praise  of  Elizabeth);  'October'  (the  perfect  poet). 

2.  Study  the  versification  of  'February.' 

3.  The   eclogues  for   'September,'    'October'    and   'November'   contain 

ideas  and  phrases  echoed  by  Milton  in  Lycidas. 

References:  A  convenient  introduction  to  the  pastorals  is  to  be  found  in  Pro- 
fessor Herford's  edition  of  the  Shepheards  Calendar;  see  also  the  introduction  to 
English  Pastorals,  edited  by  E.  K.  Chambers;  Morley,  English  Writers,  IX. 
35-58;  Jusserand,  II.  455-472;  Cambridge,  III.  247-269;  Courthope,  II.  242- 
245,  252-256;  Church,  Life  of  Spenser,  chapter  ii.  The  Idyls  of  Theocritus  have 
been  translated  by  A.  Lang  and  others;  Virgil's  Eclogues  appear  in  translation 
in  Everyman's  Library. 


46 

IV.    Other  Lyric  Poetry 

1.  The  Elizabethan  Anthologies  were  almost  as  popular  and  as 
numerous  as  the  sonnet  cycles;  they  were  composed  of  short  poems 
collected  from  the  works  of  well-known  poets  or  extracted  from 
song-books,  novels,  and  dramas.     Chief  examples: 

(a)  Totter s  Miscellany  (1557) 

(6)  Paradise   of   Dainty   Devices    (1576).     Themes   largely 

moral;  reprinted  eight  times  by  1600. 

(c)  Gorgeous  Gallery  of  Gallant  Inventions  (1578) 

(d)  A  Handfull  of  Pleasant  Delights  (1584) 

(e)  The  Phoenix's  Nest  (1593) 
(/)  England's  Helicon  (1600) 

(gr)   The  Passionate  Pilgrim  (1599).     Ascribed  to  Shakspere. 
(h)  Poetical  Rhapsody  (1602) 

2.  A  group  of  narrative  poems,  strongly  lyrical  in  method,  based 
on  classical  sources:  Shakspere's  Venus  and  Adonis   (1593)   and 
The  Rape  of  Lucrece  (1594);  and  Marlowe's  Hero  and  Leander 
(published  1598). 

Studies 

1.  Compare  the  Elizabethan  song  lyric  with  the  popular  ballad  in  stanza, 

use  of  refrain,  evidences  of  conscious  literary  art,  theme. 

2.  The  place  of  the  lyric  in  the  dramas  and  romances  of  the  time. 

3.  The  Elizabethan  Song  Books. 

References:  The  best  introduction  to  the  lyrics  of  the  Elizabethan  period  is 
to  be  found  in  Schelling's  Elizabethan  Lyrics  or  in  Carpenter's  English  Lyric 
Poetry.  See  also  Cambridge  IV.  127-146.  On  the  general  characteristics  of 
lyric  poetry,  see  Gummere,  Handbook  of  Poetics,  pp.  40-57. 


48 
EDMUND  SPENSER   (1552-1599) 

I.     Early  Works 

1.  While  a  student  at  Cambridge  contributed  some  translations 
from  Du  Bellay  to  a  miscellany,  Theatre  for  Worldlings  (1569). 

2.  In  London  in  the  service  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  1578-1580. 
Here  published  (1579)  the  Shepheards  Calender,  which,  among 
other  elements,  contained  a  warning  to  the  Puritans  of  the  danger 
to  England  in  the  alliance  between  Rome  and  Philip  of  Spain. 
Also  wrote  Mother  Hubberds  Tale,  a  beast  fable  in  the  manner  of 
Chaucer,  warning  Leicester  to  prevent  the  proposed  marriage 
between  Elizabeth  and  the  Duke  of  Anjou.    For  his  boldness, 
Spenser  sent  to  Ireland,  1580,  as  the  secretary  of  Lord  Grey,  and 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  there  except  for  two  visits  to  London. 

II.     The  Faerie  Queene 

1.  Planned  in  imitation  of  Ariosto  as  early  as  1579  and  written 
in  part,  though  perhaps  not  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  finally 
published.     First  three  books  brought  by  Spenser  to  London 
1589  and  published  1590;  the  next  three  published  1596,  though 
completed  two  years  earlier.     In  1609  two  additional  cantos  in 
the  same  stanza  but  not  otherwise  closely  related  to  the  epic. 

2.  Plan 

(a)  Virgil,  regarded  in  the  Renaissance  as  the  ideal  poet, 
was  thought  not  only  to  have  written  the  history  of  the 
founding  of  Rome  but  also  to  have  presented  in  the  form  of 
allegory  a  view  of  the  state  and  a  portrait  of  the  ideal  man. 
Thus  Spenser,  passing  like  Virgil  from  pastoral  to  epic, 
planned  an  epic  that  should  deal  with  the  early  history  of 
Britain,  should  shadow  forth  the  ideal  man,  and  present  a 
theory  of  the  state. 

(6)  The  details  of  the  plan  of  the  epic  are  given  in  the  letter 
to  Raleigh  prefixed  to  the  edition  of  1590.  There  were  to 
be  twelve  books,  each  of  them  devoted  to  the  adventures  of 
a  knight  representing  a  cardinal  virtue.  Unity  was  to  be 
given  through  the  person  of  Arthur  representing  Magnifi- 


50 

cence  in  the  moral  allegory,  Leicester  in  the  political  allegory, 
and  England  in  the  conception  of  the  State.  Gloriana,  the 
Taerie  Queene',  represents  Elizabeth.  But  the  allegory, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  is  very  complex;  for  example, 
Elizabeth  is  represented  not  only  as  Gloriana  but  also  as 
Britomart  and  Mercilla. 
Contents. 

(a)  Book  I.  The  Red  Cross  Knight,  accompanied  by  Una, 
slays  the  Dragon.  Moral  allegory :  Holiness  guided  by  Truth 
overcomes  Error.  Political  allegory:  the  events  of  the 
English  Reformation. 

(6)  Book  II.  The  adventures  of  Guyon  and  Arthur,  leading 
to  the  defence  of  Alma  and  the  overthrow  of  Acrasia.  Moral 
allegory:  the  course  of  Temperance  through  life,  avoiding 
extremes  of  gloom  or  of  false  joy,  avoiding  wrath  and  vio- 
lent passion,  conquering  desires  for  wealth  and  sensual 
enjoyment.  Political  allegory  less  marked;  the  character- 
istics of  the  English  gentleman  are  represented,  and  his 
patriotism  is  grounded  on  study  of  past  history  of  his  nation. 

(c)  Book  III.     The  adventures  of  Britomart;  her  love  for 
Artegall.     Moral   allegory:   Britomart   represents   chastity. 
Political  allegory:  Britomart  represents  the  Queen  as  Sov- 
ereign, loving  Artegall,  who  stands  for  Justice,  an  attribute 
of  -sovereignty.     Many  of  the  incidents  refer  to  social  and 
political  affairs  at  court. 

(d)  Book  IV.     No  dominating  knight  in  this  book  but  a 
series  of  adventures  representing  the  various  aspects  of  love. 
Cambell  and  Triamond  represent  friendship  between  men; 
Britomart  and  Amoret,  that  between  women;  the  love  stories 
of  Britomart  and  Amoret  are  continued. 

(e)  Book  V.     Artegall  saves  Irena;   Arthur  goes  to  defend 
Belgae;  Duessa  is  tried  and  executed.     The  moral  allegory 
deals  with  the  virtue  of  Justice  presented  under  various 
forms.     The  political  element  deals  with  the  function  of  jus- 
tice in  the  state  and  concretely  with  the  problem  of  Ireland. 


52 

(f)  Book  VI.    The  quest  for  the  Blatant  Beast  by  Calidore. 
Moral   allegory:   Calidore  represents   courtesy;   the   Beast 
is   Scandal.     Political   allegory:   reference   to   the   damage 
done  to  England  by  the  detraction  visited  upon  Lord  Grey 
and  others  in  spite  of  their  service  to  the  state;  Sidney  the 
personification  of  Courtesy. 

(g)  Book  VII  (?)     Two  cantos  of  Mutability  and  the  danger 
it  brings  the  state;  perhaps  a  reference  to  the  course  of  Eng- 
land in  dealing  with  the  Irish  problem. 

III.    Spenser's  Other  Works. 

1.  Complaints.     A  collection  of  minor  poems  published  in  1591 
but  written  at  various  times.     Most  important  Mother  Hubberds 
Tale  and  Virgils  Gnat. 

2.  Miscellaneous  Pastorals:   Daphnaida   (1591);   Astrophel,   and 
Colin  Clout  (1595).     Also,  two  marriage  hymns,   Epithalamion 
and  Prothalamion. 

3.  Fowre    Hymnes,    published    1596.     These    present    Spenser's 
philosophy  of  Love  and  Beauty,  his  Neo-Platonic  creed.     For 
the  Amoretti,  see  p.  59. 

4.  Veue  of  the  Present  State  of  Ireland,  written  1595-1596,  a 
prose  discussion  in  form  of  dialogue,   based  on  Machiavelli's 
Prince',  the  prose  counterpart  of  Faerie  Queene  V. 


54 

Studies 

1.  The  Stanza:  observe  its  structure,  the  effect  of  the  rhyme-scheme  and 

the  alexandrine.  (See  Corson,  Primer  of  English  Verse,  pp.  87- 
107;  Alden,  English  Verse,  pp.  102-106).  (6)  The  stanza  as  em- 
ployed by  subsequent  poets.  For  a  list  of  such  imitations  see 
Corson,  pp.  108-142.  (c)  Find  stanzas  remarkable  for  pictorial 
quality,  sensuous  charm,  etc. 

2.  Compare  Spenser's  use  of  simile  with  that  of  Milton  in  Paradise  Lost. 

His  diction. 

3.  Study  the  plot  construction  of  the  first  book  of  the  Faerie  Queene. 

Is  the  book  successful  as  narrative? 

4.  Study  the  characterization  in  the  same  book;  the  character-groups, 

the  different  allegorical  types,  etc. 

5.  Compare  Spenser's  use  of  Arthurian  romance  material  with  Tenny- 

son's. Compare  the  two  poets  as  to  use  of  allegory.  Compare 
Spenser's  allegory  with  Chaucer's.  With  Bunyan's. 

6.  Note  the  main  principles  of  Spenser's  religion  of  beauty. 

References:  The  best  biography  of  Spenser  is  that  contributed  by  Professor 
Fletcher  to  the  Encyclopedia  Americana.  For  criticism,  see  Lowell's  essay  on 
Spenser  and  the  brilliant  though  unfair  account  in  Jusserand  III.  473-509. 
Courthope's  chapter  in  Cambridge  III.  259-272  contains  much  excellent  criticism 
together  with  some  inaccuracies  in  detail. 


56 

THE  DRAMA 

I.     The  Origin  of  the  English  Drama 
i.  The  Religious  Drama 

(a)  Origin  in  the  trope,  a,  text  for  a  special  day,  introduced 
in  the  musical  service  of  the  Mass.  Some  of  these  were 
dramatic  in  character,  especially  those  for  Easter  and  Christ- 
mas; they  date  from  about  the  ninth  century.  An  excellent 
example  of  the  trope  is  the  Easter  Quern  Quoeritis,  which  may 
be  found  in  translation  in  Manly's  Pre-Shaksperean  Drama, 
I.  xix,  or  in  Early  Plays  (Riverside  Literature  Series),  pp.  2  ff. 
(6)  By  the  thirteenth  century,  rude  dramas  had  developed 
about  the  sepulcher  (Easter)  and  the  manger  (Christmas); 
these  expanded  into  groups  of  scenes;  a  third  group  formed 
by  the  introduction  of  scenes  from  the  Old  Testament  sup- 
posed to  prophesy  the  coming  of  Messiah.  All  this  develop- 
ment within  the  church. 

(c)  Third  stage  of  development  shown  in  transfer  to  the 
guilds,  to  be  presented  by  them  outside  the  church.     Ver- 
nacular took  the  place  of  the  Latin;  more  realistic  treatment 
of  incidents,  especially  those  that  were    extra-biblical;  in- 
troduction of  comedy  scenes;  development  of  character  types, 
such  as  Herod,  Pilate,  Noah's  wife. 

(d)  The  English  Cycles.     Of  the  hundreds  of  plays  pro- 
duced in  England  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies, four  fairly  complete  cycles  are  extant:  The  York, 
containing  48  pageants;  Towneley  or  Wakefield,  32  pageants; 
the  so-called  Coventry  cycle,  with  43 ;  and  the  Chester  cycle, 
with  25.    These  usually  presented  on  Corpus  Christi  Day, 
elaborate  in  staging  and  detail,  the  cycles  covering  the  main 
events  from  the  Creation  to  the  Day  of  Doom,  the  chief 
stress  being  upon  the  periods  from  the  Creation  to  the  Flood; 
the  life  of  Christ,  with  the  Ascension,  and  the  early  Apostolic 
age.     These  plays  originally  called  "mysteries"  (Fr.  mystere) 
because  presented  by  the  guilds.    Also  a  few  "miracles" 
6r  dramatized  legends  about  saints. 


58 

2.  Moralities 

(a)  These  dramatized  moral  allegories  of  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  due  to  the  great  popularity  of  allegory. 
(6)  Themes:  religious  and  moral  instruction;  religious  polem- 
ics; later,  plays  showing  the  value  of  learning.  Examples: 
The  Castle  of  Perseverance,  Everyman,  Hycke  Scorner,  Nyce 
Wanton. 

(c)  Bale's  Kynge  Johann  (ca.  1538)  introduces  historical 
characters  along  with  allegorical  abstractions,  but  the  play 
deals  with  religious  controversy  of  the  time  and  is  not 
properly  chronicle  history. 

3.  Interludes 

(a)  Origin  uncertain  and  strict  definition  difficult;  object 
entertainment  rather  than  instruction,  thus  deals  with  real- 
istic comedy.  An  early  example  of  high  dramatic  merit  in 
the  Second  Shepherd's  play  of  the  Towneley  religious 
cycle. 

(6)  John  Heywood  (c.  1497-c.  1577)  wrote  many  interludes, 
e.  g.,  Weather;  Love;  Four  PP;  Johan  Johan;etc. 

4.  Folk  Plays 

(a)  Certain  folk  customs  and  festivals  contain  dramatic 
elements,  some  of  them  of  great  age:  Hock  Tuesday  Play; 
Sword  Dance,  etc.,  are  examples. 

(6)  Somewhat  later  are  numerous  plays  dealing  with  St. 
George,  Robin  Hood,  etc.  Some  of  these  still  survive  as 
mummer's  plays  in  parts  of  England.  See  the  interesting 
account  of  the  Christmas  mummer's  play  in  Hardy's  novel, 
The  Return  of  the  Native.  Further  material  on  the  subject 
of  folk  customs  and  plays  may  be  found  in  Chambers' 
The  Mediaeval  Stage,  volume  II. 


60 

Studies 

1.  The  best  illustration  of  the  dramatic  version  of  biblical  story  is  to 

be  found  in  the  Brome  play  of  Abraham  and  Isaac  (Reprinted 
in  Early  Plays,  R.L.S.,  and  in  Manly.)  Study  the  way  hi  which 
the  author  enters  into  sympathy  with  the  main  characters;  his  sense 
of  the  tragedy;  the  force  of  the  climax;  the  realism  of  treatment  and 
independence  of  slavish  following  of  his  source.  For  extra-biblical 
material,  see  one  of  the  Noah  plays,  broad  farce,  or  the  far  superior 
Shepherds  Play  (Early  Plays;  Manly).  Study  plot  construction  of 
the  latter;  characterization;  realism. 

2.  Everyman  and  Nice  Wanton  should  be  studied  among  the  moralities, 

as  to  plot,  characterization,  management  of  allegory. 

References:  Text  of  early  plays  may  be  had  in  convenient  form  in  the  volume 
Early  Plays  in  the  Riverside  Literature  Series;  see  also  Manly,  The  Pre-Shaks- 
perean  Drama,  volume  I.;  Pollard,  English  Mystery  Plays,  etc.,  which  also  contains 
an  extended  introduction.  A  volume  in  Everyman's  Library  is  also  devoted  to 
texts.  For  discussion,  see  Cambridge,  V.  40-68  (The  Religious  Drama)  and  pp. 
26-39  (Folk  Plays).  The  English  Religious  Drama,  by  K.  L.  Bates,  contains 
much  interesting  material  on  methods  of  presentation,  costumes,  acting,  etc. 
See  also  Ward's  English  Dramatic  Literature,  I.  1-157,  and  Jusserand,  I.  439- 
494. 


62 

The  Period  of  Transition 
i.  Early  tragedy 

(a)  Tragic  elements  in  the  religious  drama,  such  as  the 
Brome  Abraham  play,  the  drastic  realism  of  the  Crucifixion. 
(6)  Senecan  tragedy.  The  ten  tragedies  ascribed  to  Seneca 
(first  century)  were  popular  through  the  Middle  Ages  for 
their  philosophy  and  oratorical  quality;  they  were  not 
acted,  however.  In  the  Renaissance  many  translations 
and  imitations  were  put  on  the  stage;  English  translation 
in  1581;  imitations  adopted  the  five  act  division,  were 
tragedies  of  blood,  not  character,  were  highly  rhetorical, 
made  use  of  chorus,  and  gave  the  stage  such  stock  charac- 
ters as  the  ghost,  the  tyrant,  the  confidant,  etc.  Gorboduc, 
by  Sackville  and  Norton,  acted  1562,  based  on  early  English 
history,  but  in  Senecan  style;  purpose  didactic,  dealing 
with  problem  of  Queen's  marriage;  blank  verse.  Jocasta, 
by  Gascoigne,  1566,  from  Italian  version  of  tragedy  by 
Euripides;  blank  verse.  The  Misfortunes  of  Arthur,  by 
Thomas  Hughes,  acted  1588,  based  on  Geoffrey  and  Malory, 
but  Senecan  style;  blank  verse. 

(c)  Other  early  tragedies,  important  for  relations  to  Shaks- 
pere,  were  The  Troublesome  Raigne  of  King  John  anjl  The 
True  Chronicle  History  of  King  Leir. 


64 

2.  Early  Comedy 

(a)  Comedy  elements  were  present  in  the  religious  plays, 
notably  in  the  Noah  plays,  the  shepherds'  plays,  etc.  Note 
also  the  interludes. 

(6)  Neo-classical  group.  One  form  of  these  plays  origi- 
nated in  Germany,  aimed  at  reproducing  the  wit  and  senten- 
tiousness  of  Plautus  and  Terence  but  with  a  moral  aim; 
usually  variations  of  the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son;  examples 
in  the  Acolastus  of  William  Gnaphaeus  and  the  anti-papal 
Pammachius  of  Thomas  Kirchmayer.  These  translated 
and  imitated  in  English  school  dramas;  notable  example 
in  Gascoigne's  Glasse  of  Government.  Nicholas  Udall,  a 
schoolmaster,  adapted  Roman  comedy  to  English;  his 
Ralph  Roister  Doister,  ca.  1553,  the  first  true  English  comedy 
having  structure  and  complicated  plot;  imitates  Plautus 
in  inspiration  and  form.  Gammer  Gurtons  Nedle,  ca.  1562, 
by  William  Stevenson  (?),  classical  in  structure  like  other 
college  plays,  but  native  English  farce  in  characters  and  plot. 
Note,  finally,  that  Shakspere  made  use  of  Latin  comedy 
in  his  Comedy  of  Errors. 

(c)  Translations.  Gascoigne's  Supposes,  acted  1566,  a  trans- 
lation from  Ariosto. 

References:  For  texts,  see  Manly's  Specimens  of  the  Pre-Shaksperean  Drama, 
and  the  volume  in  Everyman's  Library.  Gayley's  Representative  English  Come- 
dies contains  specimens  of  the  comedies,  together  with  much  historical  matter. 
For  history  and  criticism,  Cambridge  V.  68-135;  Ward's  English  Dramatic 
Literature,  chapter  ii;  Jusserand  III.  24-35. 


66 

HI.    The  New  English  Drama 

1.  John  Lyly  (1553-1606) 

(a)  First  literary  work,  his  novel  Euphues,  1578. 
(6)  His  plays  usually  presented  by  the  Children's  Companies 
of  the  Chapel  Royal  and  St.  Paul's.     His  themes  usually 
pastoral  or  classical  myth,  often  treating  in  allegory  current 
politics  or  social  affairs  at  court. 

(c)  Chief  comedies:  Endymion,  1579,  an  application  of  the 
myth  to  the   quarrel  between  Leicester  and  the   Queen; 
Sapho   and    Phao,    ca.    1582,    also    allegorical;    Campaspe, 
printed  1584,  classical  story  of  Alexander,  Campaspe,  and 
Apelles.    Pastoral  elements  added  in  Gallathea,  printed  1592, 
and  Love's  Metamorphosis,  printed  1601.     Mother  Bombie, 
printed    1594,  deals  with  mistaken  identity,  like  Plautus, 
and  has  less  Euphuism  and  more  farce  than  usual  in  Lyly. 
Woman  in  the  Moone,  printed  1597,  is  in  blank  verse. 

(d)  The  significance  of  Lyly  as  a  dramatist  rests  upon  his 
stressing  of  the  comedy  of  wit  rather  than  situation,  thus 
producing  high  comedy  as  against  the  older  farce;  his  in- 
troduction of  the  lighter  aspects  of  love;  his  symmetrical 
grouping  of  characters;  his  use  of  prose;  the  introduction 
of  lyrics  into  the  plays;  his  attention  to  style.     In  all  these 
respects  he  influenced  "Shakspere. 

2.  Christopher  Marlowe  (1564-1593) 

(a)  Romantic  tragedies:  Tamburlaine,  in  two  parts,  1587- 
1588,  a  study  of  the  thirst  for  universal  political  dominion; 
Doctor  Faustus,  1588,  an  adaptation  of  the  Faust  legend 
from  contemporary  German  accounts,  a  study  of  the  thirst 
for  intellectual  greatness;  The  Jew  of  Malta,  1589,  dealing 
with  the  thirst  for  universal  wealth. 

(6)  Chronicle  History:  Edward  the  Second,  ca.  1592;  not  the 
primitive  type  of  chronicle  play,  since  its  material  is  selected 
and  the  theme  is  fairly  unified,  leading  to  a  tragic  close. 
Influenced  Shakspere's  Richard  II;  Marlowe's  influence  also 
apparent  in  Richard  III. 


68 

(c)  The  significance  of  Marlowe  consists  in  his  establishing, 
by  the  great  popularity  of  his  plays  as  well  as  the  skill  of 
his  versification,  blank  verse  as  the  form  of  Elizabethan 
tragedy;  in  his  study  of  the  individualism,  the  virtu,  so 
characteristic  of  the  Renaissance;  in  the  epic  and  lyric 
qualities  of  his  work. 

Thomas  Kyd  (1558-1594) 

(a)  Important  for  his  use  of  the  Revenge  Tragedy,  character- 
ized by  introduction  of  ghost  seeking  revenge;  madness; 
play  within  the  play;  much  bloodshed;  strongly  reminiscent 
of  Seneca.  Compare  Hamlet. 

(6)  His  chief  plays  The  Spanish  Tragedy,  acted  1586,  and 
the  Ur-  Hamlet,  acted  1588. 

George  Peele  (1558-1598) 

(a)  His  plays  significant  for  skill  in  use  of  words  and  rich, 
often  ironical,  humor;  they  blend  romance  with  realism, 
and  show  true  love  of  nature  and  simple  country  life. 
(6)  Chief  plays:  The  Arraignment  of  Paris,  published  1584; 
The  Old  Wives  Tale,  ca.  1590,  which  contains  a  version  of 
the  story  of  Comus  and  much  folk-lore;  David  and  Bethsabe, 
printed  1599,  a  romantic  version  of  the  biblical  story. 

Robert  Greene  (1558-1592) 

(a)  Significant  for  his  lyrics  and  for  his  contributions  to 
prose  fiction  (Pandosto,  etc.)  and  to  pamphleteering  as  well 
as  for  his  dramas.  Plays  filled  with  love  of  nature  and  in- 
teresting for  use  of  Italian  romantic  story,  realism  of  Eng- 
lish setting,  admirable  characterization. 
(6)  Representative  dramas:  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay, 
printed  1594,  introduces  much  folk-lore,  shows  popular 
interest  in  necromancy  (cf.  Faustus),  and  presents  romantic 
story.  James  the  Fourth,  licensed  1594,  introduces  Oberon 
in  a  prose  induction,  contains  highly  romantic  story  for 
main  plot,  with  masque  elements;  excellent  example  of  mix- 
ture of  serious  plot  with  comedy. 


70 

Studies 

1.  Lyly's  Campaspe  is  the  best  of  his  plays  for  a  study  of  his  romantic 

comedy  with  serious  main  plot  and  comic  sub-plot.  Observe  the 
three  groups  of  characters,  the  slightness  of  story,  the  failure  to 
realize  the  dramatic  crisis,  the  dialogue,  the  songs. 

2.  Marlowe:  (a)    Tamburlaine  may  be  studied  for  its  versification,  its 

weakness  in  characterization,  its  repetition  of  incident,  its  epic 
qualities.  (6)  Doctor  Faustus  is  far  more  dramatic  in  its  introduc- 
tion and  conclusion,  but  breaks  down  in  intervening  scenes.  Why 
is  this  so?  Compare  other  versions  of  the  legend,  (c)  Edward  the 
Second:  The  dramatic  problem  involved  in  changing  our  view  of 
the  King;  the  selection  of  material  to  give  unity  to  the  plot;  the 
advance  over  Tamburlaine  in  characterization  (cf.  Isabel-Zenocrate; 
Edward-Tamburlaine) ;  yet  the  failure  to  render  with  effectiveness 
the  dramatist's  conceptions  of  character  and  the  frequently  awk- 
ward exposition. 

3.  Greene's  James  the  Fourth  may  be  studied  for  its  relation  to  Shaks- 

pere's  romantic  comedy  and  its  introduction  of  some  of  the  situ- 
ations used  by  Shakspere.  Note  also  the  abundance  of  story  sup- 
plied by  the  two  plots,  the  large  number  of  characters,  the  grouping 
of  characters,  the  pseudo-historical  element. 

References:  For  Lyly,  see  Cambridge  V.  136-144;  Ward,  History  of  English 
Dramatic  Literature,  I.  270-303.  Campaspe  is  printed  by  Manly,  volume  II. 
273-326,  and  in  Gayley,  Representative  English  Comedies,  with  a  critical  essay  by 
Professor  Baker,  I.  263-332.  For  Marlowe,  Cambridge  V.  160-176;  Jusserand 
III.  133-148;  Ward,  History  etc.,  I.  313-363.  A  convenient  text  of  Marlowe's 
plays  is  published  in  Everyman's  Library.  For  Kyd,  Peele,  Greene,  see  Cam- 
bridge V.  144-155,  176-185;  Ward,  History  etc.,  I.  270-409;  Jusserand  III.  121- 
133.  Greene's  James  the  Fourth,  Peele's  David  and  Bethsabe,  and  Kyd's  Spanish 
Tragedy  are  in  Manly,  II.  Peele's  Old  Wives'  Tale  and  Greene's  Friar  Bacon  are 
in  Gayley  I.  See  also  Everyman's  Library. 


72 

IV.    William  Shakspere  (1564-1616) 

i.  Development  as  a  writer  of  comedies 

(a)  The  period  of  experiment,  1589-1591.  To  this  belong 
The  Comedy  of  Errors,  a  comedy  of  situation,  not  charac- 
ter, based  on  the  Menechmi  of  Plautus  and  thus  related 
to  the  Latin  school  drama;  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  with  ap- 
parently original  plot,  but  like  Lyly  in  slightness  of  story, 
stress  of  witty  dialogue,  symmetrical  grouping  of  characters, 
and  affectation  in  style;  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  based 

4  in  part  on  Montemayor's   Diana  and,  in  the  denouement, 

on  the  popular  story  of  male  friendship,  Titus  and  Gysippus, 
the  play  being  a  first  study  in  romantic  comedy  with  serious 
main  plot  and  humorous  subordinate  characters. 
(6.)  The  period  of  transition,  1595-1598.  Here  belong  the 
fairy  play  of  Midsummer- Night's  Dream;  the  romantic 
story  combined  with  a  study  of  character  which  verges  on 
tragedy  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice;  and  the  development 
of  farce-comedy  seen  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  and  The 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor.  Of  these,  the  Shrew  and  Mer- 
chant of  Venice  owe  something  to  earlier  English  plays, 
while  the  Dream  and  the  Merry  Wives  are,  in  the  main  plot, 
more  original. 

(c)  The  triumph  of  romantic  comedy,  1599-1600.  Here 
belong  Much  Ado  about  Nothing  (partly  based  on  a  novel 
of  Bandello's),  in  which  the  serious  plot  (Hero-Claudio) 
comes  very  near  tragedy,  being  relieved  only  by  the  slight- 
ness  of  stress,  the  greater  emphasis  on  the  Benedick-Beatrice 
story,  and  the  masque-like  close;  As  You  Like  It  (a  pretty 
close  dramatization  of  Lodge's  Rosalynde),  which  shows 
the  influence  of  pastoral  and  sonnet  literature,  made  real 
through  the  skill  in  characterization;  Twelfth  Night  (based 
mainly  on  Belleforest  through  the  tale  of  Apolonius  and  Silla 
in  Barnabe  Riche  his  Farewell  to  the  Militarie  Profession); 
most  admirable  of  the  comedies  in  plot  construction  and 
exposition. 


74 

Studies  in  Shakspere's  Comedies 

1.  Love's  Labour's  Lost  may  be  compared  with  Lyly's  Campaspe  as  to 

character,  plot,  and  style.  Where  does  the  dramatic  climax  come? 
Criticize  the  fifth  act.  Does  the  dialogue  characterize? 

2.  Two  Gentlemen  of   Verona:  What  is  the  main  theme?     How  long 

doe&  it  take  the  dramatist  to  get  the  situation  fully  before  us? 
Account  for  the  extraordinary  denouement.  Note  parallels  in  situ- 
ation and  character  between  it  and  later  plays. 

3.  Midsummer-  Night' s    Dream:    Study    the    relations    between    plots. 

Account  for  the  slightness  of  the  story  of  the  lovers.  Compare 
the  "fairies"  with  Spenser's  conception  in  the  Faerie  Queene. 

4.  Merchant  of  Venice:  Here,  again,  study  the  plot-relations.     Is  the 

title  justifiable?  Would  "Shylock"  be  more  accurate?  Or  is  the 
Bassanio-Portia  story  the  main  unifying  influence?  Function  of 
the  Lorenzo-Jessica  story?  What  is  Shakspere's  attitude  toward 
Shylock? 

5.  Much  Ado:  Account  for  the  indistinct  characterization  of  Hero  and 

Claudio  and  the  improbable  denouement.  How  is  the  Benedick- 
Beatrice  story  brought  into  relation  with  it?  Which  constitutes 
the  main  plot?  ^How  much  incident  is  there  in  the  Benedick- 
Beatrice  story?  How  is  this  story  made  prominent,  and  why? 

6.  As  You  Like  It:  Compare  the  first  act  with  the  corresponding  portion 

of  Lodge's  novel.  What  reflections  of  the  sonnet  ideal  of  love  re- 
main in  the  play?  Function  of  the  Touchstone-Audrey-William 
story;  is  it  comparable  with  Shakspere's  method  in  other  plays, 
e.g.,  Love's  Labour's  Lost  and  Two  Gentlemen?  Criticize  from  the 
modern  view-point  the  dramatic  effectiveness  or  ineffectiveness 
of  acts  one  and  five. 

7.  Twelfth  Night:  Compare  the  first  act  with  those  of  Two  Gentlemen 

and  As  You  Like  It.  Compare  the  relations  between  the  romantic 
story  and  the  comedy  elements  in  this  play  with  the  method  in 
Shakspere's  other  romantic  comedies.  Compare  the  story  of  Viola 
with  that  of  Julia  (Two  Gentlemen)  as  to  incident,  characterization, 
and  exposition. 


76 

2.  The  Chronicle  History  Group 

(a)  Henry  VI.  In  three  parts;  about  1592;  very  little 
of  the  first  part  by  Shakspere.  Represents  primitive  type 
of  chronicle  play, 'history  dramatized  en  bloc. 
(&)  Historical  plays  having  a  tendency  toward  tragedy: 
Richard  III  (1593),  a  play  in  Marlowe's  manner,  strongly 
centralized  about  the  Machiavellian  character  of  Richard; 
hint  of  Nemesis  as  foundation  for  tragedy  at  the  end  (com- 
pare Macbeth) ;  King  John  (ca.  1594)  based  in  part  upon  an 
earlier  play,  and  uncertain  in  effect  through  representation 
of  John  as  both  hero  and  villain;  thus  a  return  in  construction 
to  primitive  unorganized  type,  though  with  the  difference 
that  main  interest  is  in  character,  not  incident.  Richard 
II  (ca.  1594)  based  on  Holinshed  but  similar  in  many  respects 
to  Marlowe's  Edward  the  Second;  deals  with  closing  events 
in  Richard's  reign,  hence,  poverty  of  incident  made  up 
by  long  speeches  of  epic  and  lyric  quality;  hint  of  tragedy 
of  pity;  besides  Richard's,  full  length  portrait  of  Gaunt, 
representing  patriotism  of  England,  is  notable.  (Compare 
Faulconbridge,  in  John,  and  Henry  V,  for  other  elements 
in  Shakspere's  conception  of  the  ideal  Englishman), 
(c)  The  Henry  V  trilogy  (Henry  IV,  in  two  parts;  Henry  V: 
1597-1599)  presents  Hal  as  prince  and  as  king;  epic  type 
with  strong  admixture  of  realistic  comedy;  based  on  old 
English  play. 

Studies  on  the  Historical  Plays 

1.  Note  relations  between  the  group  represented  by  John,  Richard  II, 

Richard  III    and  Shakspere's  later  work  in  tragedy    based    on 
chronicle  history  (Lear,  Macbeth). 

2.  Note  relation  of  the  plays  dealing  with  Henry  V  (a)  to  epic  con- 

ception of  history,  both  in  plot  and  style;  (6)  to  realistic  comedy 
as  apart  from  the  romantic  type. 

3.  Study  the  relation  of  one  of  the  plays  to  the  chronicles  of  Holinshed; 

note  the  general  character  of  the  changes  made  by  Shakspere,  and 
the  effects  of  these  changes. 


78 

The  Tragedies 

(a)  Early  experiments:  Titus  Andronicus  (ca.  1594),  a 
tragedy  of  blood  and  revenge;  crude  in  characterization; 
melodramatic;  not  by  Shakspere,  though  he  revised  it  in 
part.  Romeo  and  Juliet,  printed  in  imperfect  form  in 
1597,  written  some  years  earlier;  plot  drawn  mainly  from 
Romeus  and  Juliet  (by  Arthur  Brooke,  1562)  and  a  version 
of  the  story  in  Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure,  ultimately  an 
Italian  story;  tragedy  of  blood  but  purified  by  story  of 
youthful  love;  lyrical  like  Venus  and  Adonis. 
(6)  Julius  Caesar  (ca.  1599),  based  mainly  on  North's  trans- 
lation of  Plutarch;  thus  a  play  similar  in  part  to  the  chronicle 
plays,  not  really  classical;  chief  problem  arises  in  the  fact 
that  Caesar  dies  in  act  III  sc.  i  and  what  seems  to  be  remi- 
niscence of  old  revenge  type  of  play  is  introduced  by  his 
ghost;  cf.  Spanish  Tragedy,  Hamlet. 

(c)  Hamlet  (1602),  probably  based  on  an  old  revenge  play, 
perhaps  by  Kyd,  but  the  story  goes  back  to  Saxo  Grammati- 
cus.     A  tragedy  of  blood  and  revenge,  but  these  elements 
made  less  prominent  through  stressing  of  the  philosophical 
element  in  the  play;  little  external  action,  the  tragedy  of 
the  soul  of  Hamlet. 

(d)  Othello  (ca.  1604).     Source  in  a  story  by  Cinthio,  but 
notable  for  manner  in  which  melodramatic  and  sordid  story 
of  lust  and  murder  has  been  elevated;  notable  also  for  absence 
of  comedy  element  save  in  sinister  humor  of  lago,  for  absence 
of  sub-plot,  and  for  marvelous  compactness  and  motivation. 

(e)  King  Lear  (1604-1606).     Based  on  old  folk  legend,  told 
also  in  Geoffrey's  Chronicle,  Gesta  Romanorum,  Mirror  for 
Magistrates,   Holinshed,    The    Faerie  Queene,  etc.,   and   in 
an  old  chronicle   play  of   1594;  underplot  from  Sidney's 
Arcadia',  remarkable  parallelism  between  main  plot  and  the 
story  of  Gloucester  deepens  the  tragedy. 

(/)  Macbeth   (1606).     Based  on  Holinshed;  a  tragedy    of 
personal  ambition;  shortest  of  the  great  tragedies. 


80 

(0)    Last    tragedies  of   Shakspere:    Timon  of  Athens   (ca. 
1607);  Antony  and  Cleopatra  (1608);  Coriolanus  (ca.  1609). 
Shakspere's  Last  Works 

(a)  Comedies  written  during  the  period  of  the  great  tragedies 
and  showing  cynicism  and  disillusion:  Troilus  and  Cressida 
(1602);  widely  known  story  treated  in  original  and  baffling 
manner;  compare  the  version  by  Chaucer.  All's  Well  that 
Ends  Well  (ca.  1602);  based  on  Painter's  version  of  a  story 
by  Boccaccio.  Measure  for  Measure  (1604) ;  story  of  Italian 
origin,  through  a  comedy  by  Whetstone. 
(6)  Dramatic  romances:  Pericles,  printed  1608;  not  wholly 
by  Shakspere.  Cymbeline  (ca.  1610);  pseudo-historical 
setting  from  Holinshed;  main  story  widely  known,  and  told 
by  Boccaccio  and  in  Westward  for  Smelts,  an  English  mis- 
cellany. Winter's  Tale  (1611);  from  Greene's  romance 
Pandosto;  unites  tragic  story  with  pastoral  romance.  The 
Tempest  (1611);  source  of  main  plot  uncertain;  notable 
for  observance  of  classical  unities  and  skilful  use  of  the 
supernatural. 


82 

Studies 

1.  Study  the  effect  of  emphasis  by  comparing  the  Hero-Claudio  story 

(Much  Ado)  with  the  denouement  of  Romeo  and  Juliet  and  with  the 
story  of  Desdemona. 

2.  Compare  lago  and  Richard  III.     Study  the  relations  of  Othello  with 

its  source,  particularly  in  the  characterization  of  lago,  in  moti- 
vation, and  in  the  denouement.  Note  the  cumulative  effect  of  the 
incidents  and  other  details. 

3.  Study  the  use  of  incident  in  Hamlet;  the  amount  of  it,  the  elements 

drawn  from  the  old  revenge  plays.  The  various  explanations  of 
the  relation  of  Hamlet's  character  to  the  tragedy,  as  given  in  the 
Variorum  edition  (Furness). 

4.  The  history  of  the  tragedy  of  Lear  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

5.  Contrast  the  fourth  act  of  Macbeth  with  the  other  acts  in  motivation, 

compactness,  style. 

6.  Compare  the  conception  of  tragedy  set  forth  in  Romeo  and  Juliet 

with  that  of  Hamlet,  Lear,  Othello,  Macbeth.  The  relation  of  these 
last  to  the  classical  ideal  of  tragedy. 

7.  Compare  Winter's   Tale  and  The  Tempest  as  to  structure;  Winter's 

Tale  and  Othello  as  to  main  plot;  Winter's  Tale,  Romeo  and  Juliet 
and  Much  Ado  in  denouement. 

8.  Compare   Tempest  and  Midsummer- Night's  Dream  in  use  of  super- 

natural, in  versification,  in  style. 

References:  The  best  brief  biographies  of  Shakspere,  complementary  to  each 
other  in  method  and  view,  are  those  by  Sidney  Lee  and  Walter  Raleigh.  A 
convenient  introduction  to  the  plays  may  be  had  in  Dowden's  Primer  and  in  the 
Introduction  to  Shakspere  by  Professor  MacCracken  and  others.  For  a  discus- 
sion of  Shakspere's  advance  in  technique,  see  Baker,  The  Development  of  Shaks- 
pere as  a  Dramatist.  See  also  the  larger  histories  of  literature,  especially  Cam- 
bridge for  its  bibliographies,  and  such  criticism  as  in  Dowden,  The  Mind  and  Art 
of  Shakspere.  Convenient  complete  texts  of  the  plays  are  to  be  had  in  the 
single  volume  Cambridge  or  Globe  or  Oxford  editions.  For  sources  and  later 
histories  of  the  plays,  see  the  Variorum  editions  so  far  as  issued.  For  the  Eliza- 
bethan Stage,  see  Jusserand  III.  36-104;  Cambridge  VI.  271-313;  Baker,  36-99; 
and  the  monograph  on  the  Shaksperean  Stage,  by  V.  E.  Albright. 


84 

V.    Dramatists  contemporary  with  Shakspere 

1.  Ben  Jonson  (1573-1637) 

(a)  Represents  a  theory  of  drama  opposed  to  Shakspere's 
in  his  deference  to  classic  models,  his  adherence  to  "rules", 
his  hatred  of  the  romantic  type,  his  carefully  constructed 
plot,  his  simple,  not  complex  characters;  his  method  to 
construct  a  plot  to  fit  his  conception  of  his  characters  rather 
than  to  create  the  characters  to  fit  an  old  plot. 

(6)  Early  comedies  of  the  "humor"  type:  Every  Man  in 
His  Humour,  1598;  Every  Man  out  of  His  Humour,  1599. 

(c)  Later  comedies,  realistic  in  manner,  classical  in  style, 
satirical   in   intent:    Volpone,    1606;    Epicoene,    1609;    The 
Alchemist,  1610:  Bartholomew  Fair,  1614. 

(d)  Classical  tragedy:  Sejanus  (1603);  Catiline  (1611). 

(e)  Jonson  also  wrote  many  masques. 

2.  George  Chapman  (1559-1634) 

(d)  Translated  Homer;  wrote  both  comedies,  such  as  The 
Gentleman  Usher  (1606),  and  tragedies,  such  as  Bussy  d'Am- 
bois  (1607)  and  The  Revenge  of  Bussy  d'Ambois  (1613). 

(b)  Style   vivid,    poetic,    imaginative;   plot   romantic    and 
exaggerated;  epic  rather  than  dramatic  in  manner. 

3.  Thomas  Dekker  (ca.  1570-ca.  1641) 

(a)   The   Shoemaker's    Holiday    (1600),    realistic    study   of 

London  life. 

(6)  Old  Fortunatus  (1600),  a  poetic  comedy. 

(c)  Many  other  comedies  notable  for  their  descriptions  of 
London  life. 


86 

4*  Francis   Beaumont    (1584-1616)    and   John   Fletcher    (1579- 
1625) 

(a)  Wrote  many  plays  in  collaboration;  others  individually. 
(6)  Chiefly  significant  for  dramatic  romances  and  tragi- 
comedies, such  as  Philaster  (1608)  and  The  Maid's  Tragedy 
(1609). 

5.  The  End  of  the  Romantic  Drama 

(a)  From  the  death  of  Shakspere  to  the  closing  of  the  thea- 
tres in  1642  the  main  dramatic  tendencies  were  toward  sen- 
sationalism and  theatricality;  stressing  of  the  scene  rather 
than  the  whole  plot;  lowered  moral  tone;  licentiousness 
in  versification.     The  themes  were  mainly  tragedies  or  tragi- 
comedies of  sex-interest  and  comedies  of  manners. 

(b)  John  Webster  is  remembered  chiefly  for  his  Duchess  of 
Malfy  (1616) ;  John  Ford,  for  his  tragedy  The  Broken  Heart 
(1633);  James  Shirley,  for  his  tragedy  The  Cardinall  (1641), 
the  last  of  the  great  tragedies,  and  for  his  comedies  of  man- 
ners, such  as  Hyde  Park  (1632)  and  The  Lady  of  Pleasure 
(1635). 

References:  All  these  dramatists  are  discussed  in   Cambridge  VI.      See  also 
Ward  II.  296-765;  III.  1-124;  Jusserand  III.  369-463. 


88 

ELIZABETHAN  PROSE 
I.     Prose  Fiction 

1.  The  old  romances  retained  considerable  popularity  during  the 
sixteenth  century,  partly  through  the  revival  of  chivalry.     Malory 
still  read;  other  popular  romances  being  Guy  of  Warwick,  Lancelot, 
Bevis  of  Hampton,  and  the  later  Amadis.     Compare  Faerie  Queene. 
Romances  attacked,  however,  on  the  ground  of  immorality;  most 
Elizabethan  fiction  is  either  really  or  professedly  moral  in  intention; 
later  in  the  century,  the  Italian  prose  tales  largely  supplanted  them. 

2.  The  collections  of  prose  tales 

(a)  Based  on  the  Italian  novella,  a  short  story  romantic 
in  theme,  but  simple  and  realistic  in  style  and  often  cli- 
mactic in  construction.  Important  for  their  influence  on 
Shakspere  and  other  dramatists. 

(6)  Chief  collections:  William  Painter,  The  Palace  of  Pleas- 
ure, 1566;  G.  Fenton,  Tragical  Discourses,  1567;  Barnabe 
Riche  His  Farewell  to  the  Militarie  Profession,  1581. 

3.  The  Novel 

(a)  John  Lyly,  Euphues,  1578-1580.  A  short  story  expanded 
by  letters  and  moral  discussions;  style  highly  mannered 
(antithesis,  exaggerated  similes,  intricate  alliteration,  exact 
balance  of  accents). 

(6)  Robert  Greene,  Pandosto,  1588  (influenced  Winter's 
Tale) ;  Menaphon,  1589.  Pastoral  romances,  unreal  in  scene 
and  euphuistic  in  style;  filled  with  maxims;  slight  in  charac- 
terization. 

(c)  Thomas  Lodge,  Rosalynde,   1590.     Main  source  of  As 
You  Like  It;  a  pastoral  romance  based  on  the  pseudo- 
Chaucerian  Tale  of  Gamely n;  style  a  combination  of  Euphu- 
ism and  Petrarchism;  combines  prose  and  verse;  best  of  the 
Elizabethan  romances. 

(d)  Sir  Philip  Sidney,   Arcadia,   1580-85;  published  1590. 
Combines  pastoral  and  chivalric  elements;  contains  elements 
drawn    from    Sannazaro's    Arcadia    (title;    pastoral    back- 
ground; interspersed  eclogues);  Montemayor's  Diana  (open- 


90 

ing  passages  similar;  some  lyrics  translated  from  it;  woman- 
page  motif);  Amadis  of  Gaul  (romantic  and  chivalric  epi- 
sodes) ;  and  the  Greek  romances  (prince  captured  by  band  of 
outlaws,  etc.).  Plot  badly  made,  because  of  multitude 
of  characters  and  incidents;  style  marked  rather  by  conceits 
and  bold  metaphors  than  the  Euphuistic  simile,  sentences 
longer  than  in  Euphues;  was  regarded  as  a  "poem"  in  its 
time,  and  had  great  influence  on  drama  (e.  g.  the  Gloucester 
plot  in  Lear),  on  contemporary  poetry,  and  in  later  times 
(e.  g.  Pamela's  prayer  was  used  by  Charles  I  and  called  forth 
a  pamphlet  from  Milton;  name  also  used  by  Richardson  in 
Pamela,  etc.). 

(e)  Thomas  Nash,  Jack  Wilton,  1594.  Story  of  an  advent- 
urer in  his  travels  in  France,  Germany,  and  Italy  until  his 
return  with  rich  Italian  wife.  Time  of  Henry  VIII;  the  poet 
Surrey  is  introduced  and  his  love  for  Geraldine  of  the  sonnets 
made  excuse  for  ridicule  of  Petrarchism;  purpose  also  to 
make  fun  of  German  and  Italian  culture,  and  of  the  English 
for  aping  foreign  fashions.  Style  affected,  but  better  than 
Lyly's  or  Sidney's;  more  realistic  and  witty;  deals  with  com- 
mon life,  not  pastoral,  and  is  related  to  picaresque  genre. 
Suggests  Don  Quixote  in  parts. 

(/)  Thomas  Deloney  wrote  (1596-1600)  three  storiesh(  Thomas 
of  Reading,  Jack  of  Newbury,  and  the  Gentle  Craft)  in  praise 
of  the  crafts  of  the  clothiers,  the  weavers,  and  the  cobblers, 
with  much  realistic  description  of  contemporary  life. 

References:  Jusserand,  The  English  Novel,  chapters  ii-v;  Literary  History, 
III.  chapter  iv;  Cambridge  III.  386-424;  Canby,  The  Short  Story  in  English, 
103-155  (especially  good  for  its  treatment  of  the  collections  of  prose  tales); 
Dunlop,  History  of  Fiction,  II.  chapter  xi  (especially  for  summaries  of  plots); 
Courthope,  II.  chapters  vii,  viii.  See  also  the  histories  of  the  English  Novel  by 
Cross,  Raleigh,  Warren.  The  chapter  on  Arcadia  in  Fox  Bourne's  Life  of  Sid- 
ney; the  essay  on  Lodge  in  Gosse's  Seventeenth  Century  Studies,  and  Morley's 
English  Writers  X  may  also  be  consulted.  An  excellent  edition  of  Rosalynde 
is  in  "The  Shakespeare  Library"  (Duffield  &  Co.). 


92 

II.     The  Beginnings  of  Literary  Criticism  in  England 

1.  Literary  criticism  before  the  sixteenth  century 

(a)  Chaucer's  criticism  of  the  romances  in  his  Sir  Thopas. 

(b)  Works  on  Rhetoric  were  the  outgrowth  of  Humanism. 

2.  Roger  Ascham  introduced  some  elementary  literary  criticism 
in  The  Scolemaster,  1570. 

3.  George  Gascoigne,  Certayn  Notes  of  Instruction,  1575;  rules 
for  writing  verse. 

4.  Stephen  Gosson,  School  of  Abuse,   1579,  represents  Puritan 
attack  on  poetry  for  its  immorality;  attacked  drama  and  romances 
especially. 

5.  Thomas  Lodge,  A  Defence  of  Poetry,  1579;  an  eloquent  reply 
to  Gosson. 

6.  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  The  Defense  of  Poesy,  written  about  1583; 
discusses  position  of  poetry  in  past  ages;  classifies  the  ' 'kinds"; 
maintains  poetry  to  be  the  highest  of  knowledges;  defends  it 
against  charges  of  immorality,  and  reviews  state  of  poetry  and 
drama  in  his  own  time;  classical  point  of  view. 

7.  William  Webbe,  Discourse  of  English  Poetrie,  1586;  historical 
but  inadequate  survey  of  English  poetry;  abuses  rhyme  and  holds 
brief  for  quantitative  verse;  compare  Harvey's  letters  to  Spenser 
and  the  theories  of  the  Areopagus. 

8.  Puttenham's  (?)  Arte  of  English  Poesie,  published  1589;  com- 
bines rhetoric  with  poetical  criticism;  historical  survey;  praises 
Spenser  and  Sidney. 


94 

g.  Sir  John  Harington,  in  the  Preface  to  his  translation  of 
Ariosto,  1591,  phrases  tendency  to  regard  Virgil  as  model  for 
epic  poetry  and  compares  him,  in  much  detail,  with  Ariosto. 
10.  Thomas  Campion,  Observations  on  the  Art  of  English  Poesy, 
1602,  reflects  protest  against  effort  to  make  English  verse  conform 
to  classical  models,  shown  in  the  earlier  quantitative  verse. 
n.  Samuel  Daniel,  A  Defence  of  Ryme,  1603,  carries  the  revolt 
farther  and  maintains  the  necessity  of  an  English  system. 
12.  As  a  whole,  Elizabethan  criticism  has  strong  moral  element, 
due  to  the  Puritan  attack  and  the  defences  thereto;  leans  toward 
classicism  and  "rules";  admits  the  transitional  character  of 
poetry  of  the  time;  shows  beginnings  of  valuation  of  authors 
and  works. 

References:  Cambridge,  III.  chapter  xiv;  the  introduction  to  Gregory  Smith's 
Elizabethan  Critical  Essays;  Spingarn's  Literary  Criticism  in  the  Renaissance; 
Jusserand  II.  354-368.  Sidney's  Defense,  edited  by  Cook,  is  published  by  Ginn 
&  Company. 


96 

ffl.     Historical  and  Didactic  Works 

1.  Chronicles  were  written  by  Raphael  Holinshed  (editor),  Ed- 
ward Hall,  William  Camden,  and  others.     Raleigh  attempted  a 
history  of  the  world.     Richard  Hakluyt,   Raleigh,  and  others 
wrote  accounts  of  travel  and  colonization. 

2.  Richard  Hooker  wrote,  1594-1597,  Of  the  Laws  of  Ecclesiastical 
Polity ,  a  defense  of  the  Anglican  position  as  against  Calvinism. 
Notable  for  its  philosophical  breadth  of  view,  its  dignity,  its 
learning,  and  a  style  eloquent  and  sonorous. 

IV.  Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626) 

1.  Lawyer,  member  of  Parliament,  and  orator  of  great  eminence, 
as  well  as  an  eager  and  ambitious  student  during  the  time  of 
Elizabeth;  attained  eminence  as  a  writer  and  philosopher  during 
the  reign  of  James;  life  marked  by  doubleness  of  aim,  due  to 
self-seeking  ambition  coupled  with  a  desire  for  service  to  knowl- 
edge: "I  have  taken  all  knowledge  to  be  my  province." 

2.  Chief  prose  works 

(a)  Essays,  published  1597  (containing  ten  essays);  1612, 
(38  essays);  1625  (58  essays).  "Certain  brief  notes,  set 
down  rather  significantly  than  curiously";  subjects  usually 
abstract,  treated  from  utilitarian  point  of  view;  notable  for 
abundance  of  illustration,  shrewdness,  extreme  conciseness. 
(6)  Advancement  of  Learning  (1605);  a  summary  of  existing 
knowledge. 

(c)  The  Wisdom  of  the  Ancients  (1609);  thirty-one  classical 
myths  with  allegorical  interpretation. 

(d)  Novum  Organum  (1620) ;  presents  the  "new  instrument  of 
thought  and  discovery,"  an  analysis  and  arrangement  of 
inductive   evidence;   stresses   practical  aim  of  knowledge; 
significant  rather  for  the  indication  of  the  way  in  which 
science  was  to  develop  than  for  the  value  of  the  results 
reached  by  the  author;  written  in  Latin. 


98 

Studies 

1.  "Of  Studies":  Has  this  essay  any  structure  or  is  it  inorganic?    What 

devices  are  used  for  marking  transitions  between  sentences  and  main 
divisions  of  the  thought,  if  any?  What  is  the  difference  between 
Bacon's  use  of  antithesis  and  balance  and  Lyly's?  Study  with 
care  the  diction:  use  of  archaic  and  obsolete  words;  source  of  the 
vocabulary  (Latin  or  English?);  the  use  of  rhetorical  figures.  Is 
the  style  similar  to  that  of  the  Bible  in  any  respects? 

2.  "Of  Truth":  Structure?     How  does  the  imagery  differ  from  that  in 

the  essay  on  Studies?    What  does  he  mean  by  "lie"? 

3.  What  indications  of  the  character  of  the  man  are  to  be  found  in  the 

essays  "Of  Love,"  "Of  Great  Place,"  "Of  Wisdom  for  a  Man's 
Self"? 

4.  Classify  the  themes  of  the  Essays. 

5.  Compare  with  the  Essays  of  Montaigne. 

References:  Cambridge  IV.  319-335  (best  for  discussion  of  the  scientific  value 
of  Bacon's  work) :  Schelling,  English  Literature  During  the  Lifetime  of  Shakespeare, 
337-356  (inclines  to  hostile  view);  Scott,  Introduction  to  edition  of  the  Essays 
(distinctly  appreciative  view,  with  thorough  study  of  literary  qualities  and 
sources) ;  Jusserand  III.  524-549  (like  Macaulay's  Essay  in  balancing  character 
of  the  man  against  wisdom  of  the  writer).  The  best  edition  of  the  Essays  is 
that  by  M.  A.  Scott  (Scribners). 


100 
ELIZABETHAN  TRANSLATIONS 

I.     Translations  from  the  Classics 

1.  English  translations  of  Ovid,  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Sallust, 
Xenophon,  Cicero. 

2.  Sir  Thomas  North,  Plutarch,  1579. 

3.  R.  Stanyhurst,  Virgil's  Aeneid  (four  books),  1582. 

4.  George  Chapman,  Homer's  Iliad,  1598,  1611. 
n.     Translations  from  contemporary  foreign  literature 

1.  Thomas  Hoby,  The  Boke  of  the  Courtier,  1561,  from  II  Cor- 
tegiano   by   Castiglione;   a   famous   "conduct-book,"   important 
for  its  influence  on  Spenser. 

2.  The  Italian  prose  tales  were  translated  by  Fenton,  Painter, 
and  others. 

3.  Machiavelli's  II  Principe,  known  in  the  original  and  in  the 
garbled  French  version  by  Gentillet,  exerted  profound  influence 
on  Elizabethan  thought  and  literature;  the  Art  of  War  and  Floren- 
tine History  were  known  in  English  versions. 

4.  Italian  poetry:  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso  translated  by  Haring- 
ton,   1591;  Tasso's  Gerusalemme  Liber ata  translated  by  Fairfax, 
1600.     Petrarch  universally  known,  but  usually  translated  piece- 
meal and  without  acknowledgment. 

5.  French  literature:   Florio's  translation  of  Montaigne,    1603; 
Sylvester's  translation  of  Du   Bartas,  1590-1592.     Influence  of 
Ronsard,   Desportes,   and  Du  Bellay  comparable  with  that  of 
Petrarch,  and  transmitted  in  the  same  manner. 

References:  Schelling,  English  Literature  etc.,  262-291;  Cambridge  IV.  1-28; 
Jusserand  II.  386-377;  also  the  works  on  the  Italian  and  French  Renaissance  in 
England  by  Einstein,  Upham,  Lee. 


102 

HI.    The  English  Bible 

1.  Partial  translations  made  in  Anglo  Saxon  times  by  Alfred  and 
Aelfric ;  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  John  Wyclif . 

2.  Translations  in  the  sixteenth  century 

(a)  William  Tindale  translated,  1526-1530,  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  Pentateuch;  this  influenced  Matthew's  Bible, 
edited  by  John  Rogers,  1537,  and  the  Great  Bible,  edited  by 
Cranmer,  1539. 

(6)  First  English  version  of  the  entire  Bible  by  Miles  Cover- 
dale,  1535. 

3.  The   King  James  Bible,    1604-1611,  has  exerted  prodigious 
influence  on  English  literature. 

(a)  Because  though  translations  from  the  classics  and  from 
contemporary  foreign  literature  usually  fail  to  render  ex- 
actly the  genius  of  the  original  tongue,  it  was  possible  to 
translate  the  Hebrew  scriptures  with  such  fidelity  as  to 
reproduce  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  matter  of  the  original. 
(6)  Because  its  concreteness  and  simplicity  corrected  the 
main  faults  of  Elizabethan  prose  in  diction  and  imagery^ 
93%  of  its  vocabulary  is  native  English,  and  there  are  only 
about  6000  words  as  against  20,000  or  more  in  Shakspere 
and  13,000  in  Milton. 

(c)  Because  the  poetical  portions  of  the  work,  retaining  in 
the    translation    their    emotional    and    imaginative    value, 
served  as  a  model  for  an  English  prose  which  should  have 
literary   distinction   without   the  affectation  of  Euphuism, 
or  the  disorder  and  incoherence  of  the  tracts,  or  the  abstract 
and  involved  style  of  Latinized  prose. 

(d)  Because   its  passionate  earnestness  and   directness  of 
appeal  give  the  intensity  found  in  the  drama  but  rarely  in 
earlier  prose. 

(e)  Because  its  phrases  and  images  have  become  imbedded 
in  daily  speech,  a  source  of  allusion  more  pervasive  than 
any  other,  part  and  parcel  of  the  style  of  all  English  authors 
of  distinction  since  its  time. 


104 

(/)  Because  of  the  universality  of  its  appeal  to  all  classes 
of  society,  whatever  the  degree  of  education;  only  Shaks- 
•  pere  being  comparable  in  influence  in  this  respect. 

References:  Professor  Cook's  chapter  in  Cambridge  IV.  29-58;  Gardiner's 
The  Bible  as  English  Literature,  282-396;  Green,  History  of  the  English  People, 
Book  VII,  chapter  i.  A  good  introduction  to  the  literary  study  of  the  Bible 
is  that  by  R.  G.  Moulton  (Heath  &  Company). 


106 
POETRY  FROM  JONSON  TO  MILTON 

The  Transition  to  the  Seventeenth  Century 

1.  Michael  Drayton  (1563-1631) 

(a)  Significant  because  his  work  reflects  the  course  of  Eng- 
lish poetry  from  the  time  of  the  sonnet  cycles  to  the  birth 
of  Dryden. 

(6)  Chief  works:  Idea,  the  Shepheards  Garland,  1593,  1606, 
a  series  of  eclogues  in  imitation  of  the  Shepheards  Calender 
but  with  much  less  satire  and  moralizing;  Idea's  Mirrour, 
1594,  a  sonnet  cycle  which  passed  through  eleven  editions 
by  1631 ;  England's  Heroicall  Epistles,  1597,  a  series  of  letters 
from  heroic  lovers,  written  in  couplets  (compare  Pope's 
Eloisa  to  Abelard);  Odes,  1606;  Poly-Olbion,  1613,  1622, 
an  account  of  observation  and  travel  in  England,  preserv- 
ing history  and  legend  as  related  to  places  visited;  Nym- 
phidia,  1627,  a  mock-heroic  poem  about  Oberon  and  Titania. 
(Poly-Olbion  is  one  of  a  number  of  long  poems  patriotic 
in  aim  and  epic  in  style;  other  examples  being  Albion's 
England,  by  Warner,  1586,  and  The  Civill  Wars,  by  Daniel, 
1595-1609.) 

2.  John  Donne  (1573-1631) 

(a)  Most  of  his  poems  collected  and  published  1633,  1635, 
but  written  1592-1602;  these  poems  Elizabethan  in  time 
but  their  chief  influence  felt  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
(6)  Themes:  songs  and  sonnets  mainly  of  an  erotic  type; 
satires;  devotional  poems. 

(c)  Significant  for  his  rebellion  against  Petrarchism  (com- 
pare Nash,  and  the  sonnets  of  Shakspere) ;  for  his  inequal- 
ity of  style  and  subtlety  and  ingenuity  of  thought;  for  his 
disregard  of  convention,  and  for  his  use  of  conceits  drawn 
from  scientific  and  out  of  the  way  sources;  his  imagery, 
however,  not  intended  for  ornament  so  much  as  for  the 
expression  of  highly  original  and  imaginative  thought; 
somewhat  similar  to  Browning. 


108 

(d)  Representative  poems:  Go  and  Catch  a  Falling  Star  and 
Love's  Deity  (cynicism,  contempt  for  Petrarchistic  ideal); 
The  Ecstacy  (shows  his  peculiar  style  and  intellectual 
subtlety);  The  Storm  (notable  example  of  graphic  descrip- 
tion); Death  (a  sonnet). 
Ben  Jonson  (1573-1637) 

(d)  Besides  his  dramas  and  masques,  Jonson  wrote  odes, 
lyrics  and  epigrams,  printed  as  Epigrams  and  The  Forest, 
1616;  Underwoods,  1640;  and  the  prose  Timber  or  Dis- 
coveries, 1641.  The  last  contains,  besides  little  essays  on 
men  and  conduct,  essays  on  style  and  poetry  which  show 
the  influence  of  Quintilian,  Horace,  and  Aristotle  and  point 
toward  the  criticism  of  the  age  of  Dryden  and  Pope. 

(b)  Jonson' s  lyrics  are  notable  for  their  sense  of  form, 
finish  of  style,  indebtedness  to  the  classics,  and  for  their 
influence  on  Herrick  and  others  of  the  "tribe  of  Ben." 
Jonson  and  Donne  also  used  the  heroic  couplet  for  satire 
and  epigram. 

Robert  Herrick  (1591-1674) 

(a)  His  lyrics,  about  1200  in  number,  written  at  various 
times  but  not  collected  and  published  until  1648,  with  the 
titles  Hesperides  and  Noble  Numbers;  the  first  collection 
consisting  of  secular  and  the  second  of  devotional  verse. 
(6)  Besides  Jonson's,  chief  influences  on  his  work  the  poems 
of  Catullus,  Horace,  and  the  Anacreontic  lyrics. 

(c)  Themes:    amoristic   poems   free   from    Petrarchism    or 
subtlety;  folk  customs;  the  transitoriness  of  beauty;  the 
seasons;  flowers  and  fairies;  religious  poems. 

(d)  Poetry  marked  by  polish  of  form  combined  with  great 
lyrical   power;   large   variety   of   metrical   forms;   absence 
of  deep  feeling  or  serious  thought. 


110 

The  School  of  Spenser 

1.  William  Drummond  of  Hawthornden  (1585-1649)  wrote  many 
lyrics,  both  amorous  and  religious;  some  pastorals;  a  prose  tract, 
The  Cypresse  Grove,  is  a  discourse  upon  death  that  anticipates 
the  work  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

2.  George  Wither  (1588-1677) 

(a)  Satire :  Abuses  Stript  and  Whipt. 

(b)  Pastorals:    The    Shepherd's     Hunting    (1615);    Fidelia 
(1617);  Faire  Virtue  (1622).    These  marked  by  true  love 
of  nature,  simplicity,  lyrical  power,  use  of  the  four  accent 
couplet  made  famous  by  Milton. 

(c)  Religious   poetry:    Haleluiah,   a   collection   of   Puritan 
hymns,  reflecting  his  sympathy  with  Puritanism,  1641. 

3.  William  Browne  (1591-1645) 

(a)  Britannia's  Pastorals  (1613,  1616)  imitate  Spenser,  but 

are  simple  and  observant;  patriotic  in  intention. 

(6)  Inner  Temple  Masque,  performed  1614-15,  influenced 

Comus. 

4.  Giles  Fletcher  (1588-1623) 

(a)  Like  other  poets  in  this  group,  links  Spenser  and  Milton. 
Most  important  work,  Christ's  Victorie,  1610,  in  a  modi- 
fied Spenserian  stanza,  is  in  four  parts:  Heaven,  Earth, 
Death,  Resurrection;  and  illustrates  growing  tendency 
toward  epic  treatment  of  biblical  material. 

5.  Phineas  Fletcher  (1582-1650) 

(a)  Britain's  Ida,  1628,  a  version  of  the  Venus  and  Adonis 
story  written  in  a  modified  Spenserian  stanza,  and  long 
attributed  to  Spenser. 

(6)  The  Purple  Island,  1633,  an  allegory  of  the  human  body 
with  much  moral  allegory  in  the  manner  of  Spenser.  Com- 
pare Nosce  Teipsum,  by  Sir  John  Davies,  1602,  a  philo- 
sophical poem  on  human  nature. 

(c)  The  Apollyonists,  1627,  five  cantos  in  modified  Spen- 
serian stanza,  in  which  the  story  of  the  Fall  of  Lucifer  is 
connected  with  the  history  of  the  Roman  church  and  reaches 
a  climax  in  the  Gunpowder  plot.  Interesting  relations 
to  Milton. 


112 

Lyric  Poets 

1.  The  Cavalier  Lyrists 

(a)  Besides  Herrick,  a  group  of  court  poets  wrote  songs 

and  lyrics  during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.     Chief  among  them 

were  Thomas  Carew  (1598-1639) ;  Richard  Lovelace  (1618- 

1658) ;  Sir  John  Suckling  (1609-1641). 

(6)  These  poets  notable  for  qualities  of  verse  already  noted 

in  Jonson  and  Herrick,  but  with  far  less  range  and  greater 

artificiality. 

2.  Writers  of  the  religious  lyric 

(a)  George  Herbert  (1593-1633)  wrote  The  Temple,  a  col- 
lection of  nearly  two  hundred  poems,  published  1633.  In 
attention  to  form,  suggests  the  Cavalier  group;  his  fondness 
for  conceits  shows  his  relation  to  the  type  of  poetry  insti- 
tuted by  Donne;  his  passionate  intensity  and  sincerity 
reveal  the  character  of  the  man  and  the  contrast  between 
him  and  Herrick. 

(fr)  Richard  Crashaw  (1612-1649)  wrote  both  secular  and 
religious  lyrics.  Of  the  first,  Wishes  to  his  Supposed  Mis- 
tress is  the  most  famous;  of  the  second,  The  Weeper  is  notable 
for  the  grotesqueness  of  its  conceits,  while  the  Hymne 
to  St.  Teresa  is  passionate  and  powerful. 

(c)  Henry  Vaughan  (1621-1695)  published  Silex  Scintillans 
1650,  1656;  owed  much  to  Herbert,  but  with  stronger  ten- 
dency to  mysticism;  imaginative  power  manifest  in   The 
World  and  They  are  all  gone  into  the  World  of  Light.     In 
The  Retreat  suggested  the  main  thought  of  Wordsworth's 
ode  on  Immortality. 

(d)  William  Habington  (1605-1654)  wrote  Castara,  a  col- 
lection of  love  poems,  together  with  many  religious  lyrics. 

(e)  Francis   Quarles    (1592-1644)    is   remembered   for   his 
Emblemes,   1635. 


114 

IV.     Beginnings  of  Pseudo-Classicism 

1.  The  three  main  tendencies  in  seventeenth  century  poetry  thus 

far  considered: 

(a)  The  school  dominated  by  Jonson  and  Herrick  represents 
the  classical  impulse  toward  perfection  of  form. 
(6)  The  Spenserian  group  represents  the  growing  interest 
in  long  narrative  and  epic  poems  partly  religious,  partly 
historical  and  patriotic. 

(c)  The  concettists  (Donne,  Herbert,  Crashaw,  etc.)  repre- 
sent not  only  the  decadence  from  Elizabethan  imaginative 
and  lyrical  power  and  a  new  artificiality  distinct  from  the 
artificiality  of  Petrarchism,  Euphuism,  etc.,  but  also  an 
increasingly  religious  tone  of  poetry  reflecting  sincere  feel- 
ing, often  expressed  in  the  grotesque  and  over-wrought  im- 
agery characteristic  also  of  Puritan  poetry  and  prose. 

2.  The  group  now  to  be  considered  represents  the  further  devel- 
opment of  classicism  into  a  poetry  that  stresses  form  above  con- 
tent.   The  ode  replaces  the  older  pastoral  and  sonnet;  the  couplet 
becomes  epigrammatic;  "fancy"  takes  the  place  of  imagination; 
medieval  abstractions  become  mere  conventions;  classical  allu- 
sion and  studied  phrase  lead  to  a  new  poetic  diction.     Chief 
exemplars  of  this  tendency:  Waller;  Denham;  Cowley;  Davenant. 


116 

Edmund  Waller  (1605/6-1687) 

(a)  His  Poems  published  1645;  translation  of  a  part  of  Vir- 
gil, 1658;  Divine  Poems,  1685;  about  5000  lines  in  all. 
(6)  Distinguished  for  some  fine  lyrics,  which  however  are 
imitative,  not  original;  other  lyrics  marked  by  triviality, 
gallantry,  cynicism.  Chief  reasons  for  the  great  influence 
exerted  by  him  to  be  found  in  his  popularizing  of  the  closed 
couplet;  in  his  theory  that  the  function  of  poetry  is  to  please; 
and  in  the  example  which  he  set  for  regarding  polish  and 
elegance  as  the  chief  duty  of  a  poet. 

(c)  Before  Waller,  the  heroic  couplet  long  known.  Chaucer 
used  it,  but  in  flexible  form,  in  a  large  portion  of  his  work; 
Spenser  used  it  in  satirical  verse;  Shakspere  in  parts  of 
Love's  Labour's  Lost]  Joseph  Hall  in  his  satires  (Vergi- 
demiarum,  1597,  based  on  Juvenal)  gave  it  much  of  the  point 
and  epigram  dear  to  later  times;  Jonson,  who  was  Waller's 
master,  also  used  it  in  his  satires;  Drayton,  in  his  Heroicall 
Epistles'  and  George  Sandys,  in  his  versions  of  Ovid,  1626, 
and  of  the  Aeneid,  Book  I,  1632,  showed  its  possibilities  as 
a  medium  for  translation  of  the  classics. 

Sir  John  Denham  (1615-1668) 

(a)  Translated  part  of  the  Aeneid  into  heroic  couplets. 
(6)  Cooper's   Hill,  1642;  in  heroic  couplets;  combines  des- 
cription with  moral  reflection;  the  description  being  general, 
not  specific,  and  the  style  conventional  but  concise  and 
antithetical. 


118 

5.  Abraham  Cowley  (1618-1667) 

(a)  The  Mistress,  1647,  amoristic  poetry  marked  by  frigid- 
ity, conventionality,  conceits. 

(6)  Pindarique  Odes,  1656,  professed  to  imitate  Pindar's 
"enthusiasticall  manner";  not  truly  Pindaric  in  form; 
filled  with  abstractions  and  conceits;  exerted  great  influ- 
ence on  succeeding  pseudo-classic  poets. 

(c)  Davideis,  1656,  a  sacred  epic,  designed  in  imitation  of 
Virgil,  but  only  four  of  the  twelve  books  written;  pedantic 
and  labored,  but  illustrates  tendency  that  was  to  culminate 
in  Milton;  heroic  couplet. 

(d)  Cowley 's  influence  mainly  felt  in  his  popularizing  of 
the  ode,  which  became  the  chief  lyric  form  in  the  pseudo- 
classic  period;  and  in  his  use  of  the  couplet  for  heroic  narra- 
tive.    His  prose,  Advancement  of  Learning,  Cromwell,  Essays, 
(1661),  is  free  from  the  artificiality  of  his  verse. 

6.  Sir  William  Davenant  wrote  an  epic  poem,  Gondibert  (two 
books  published  1650);  planned  in  five  books  corresponding  to 
the  five  acts  of  a  drama;  poem  suggests  the  heroic  plays  of  Dry- 
den  in  style,  theme,  and  conception  of  poetry. 

References:  The  best  survey  of  the  lyric  poetry  of  the  period  is  in  Schelling, 
Seventeenth  Century  Lyrics;  see  also  Ward's  English  Poets  III.;  Drayton,  in  Cam- 
bridge IV.  193-224;  Herrick:  Cambridge  VII.  5-18;  Courthope  III.  253-265. 
Donne:  Schelling,  English  Literature  etc.,  357-377;  Cambridge  IV.  225-256; 
Courthope  III.  147-168.  The  Spenserians:  Cambridge  IV.  172-192;  Courthope 
III.  9-73;  126-146.  Theological  and  Court  lyrists:  Cambridge  VII.  1-54;  Court- 
hope  III.  118-146;  169-333.  Classical  group:  Cambridge  VII.  55-8  -,  Courthope 
III.  271-284;  334-385. 


120 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  PROSE  BEFORE  DRYDEN 

I.     The  Prose  of  Learning  and  Scientific  Inquiry 

1.  Bacon's  scientific  works  belong  to  the  early  part  of  the  century. 

2.  Robert  Burton  (1577-1640) 

(a)   The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,   1621,  purports  to  be  a 

scientific   inquiry   into   the   definition,    causes,    symptoms, 

and  properties  of  melancholy;  its  cure;  with  a  special  study 

of  love  melancholy  and  religious  melancholy. 

(6)  Style   marked   by   pedantic   quotation   of   authorities; 

ill-digested  masses  of  material;  humor;  interest  in  human 

nature. 

(c)  Influenced  Sterne's  Tristram  Shandy,  Lamb,  Coleridge, 

etc. 

3.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  (1605-1682) 

(a)  Religio  Medici,  written  about  1635  for  private  use,  pub- 
lished 1642,  1643;  immense  popularity  due  in  part  to  its 
freedom  from  the  religious  controversy  of  the  time,  in  part 
to  the  charm  of  its  style  and  of  the  personality  revealed 
in  its  pages. 

(6)  Hydriotaphia  or  Urn  Burial,  and  The  Garden  of  Cyrus, 
1658.  The  first,  inspired  by  the  discovery  of  some  burial 
urns  at  Norfolk,  is  an  essay  on  modes  of  burial,  and  a  series 
of  reflections  on  death,  fame,  and  immortality, 
(c)  Style  intimately  revealing,  imaginative,  rhythmical, 
erudite;  curious  in  texture,  in  subject,  in  intellectual  quality. 

4.  Thomas  Fuller  (1608-1661) 

(a)   The  Holy  War  (1640);  Holy  and  Profane  State  (1641); 

The  Worthies  of  England  (1662). 

(6)  Notable  for  skill  in  characterization  and  for  his  wit. 


122 

5.  Izaak  Walton  (1593-1683) 

(a)  Compleat  Angler  (1653);  Lives  (of  Donne,  Herbert, 
Wotton,  and  others)  published  separately  at  various  times; 
collected,  1670. 

(6)  Less  pedantic  than  others  included  in  this  section,  he 
shows  the  spirit  of  the  antiquary,  combined  with  that  of 
the  lover  of  nature;  his  style  charming  for  its  simplicity. 
II.     Travel,  History,  Political  Science 

1.  Books  of  travel  by  Purchas  (1613),  Sandys  (1615),  and  others. 

2.  Historical    works   by   Bacon    (Henry    the   Seventh),    Raleigh 
( History  of  the  World),  and  others. 

3.  Thomas  Hobbes  wrote  (1651)  Leviathan,  "the  matter,  form, 
and  power  of  a  commonwealth." 

m.    Theological  Writers 

1.  Richard  Baxter,  The  Saint's  Everlasting  Rest,  1649/50. 

2.  Jeremy  Taylor,  Holy  Living  (1650);  Holy  Dying  (1651). 

References:  No  satisfactory  history  of  English  prose  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury exists.  For  the  writers  in  group  I.,  consult  Cambridge  VII.  A  convenient 
edition  of  Browne's  principal  writings,  with  an  introduction  by  Professor  Herford, 
is  published  in  Everyman's  Library. 


124 
JOHN  MILTON   (1608-1674) 

I.     First  Period  (1608-1639) 

1.  Poems  written  while  a  student  at  Christ's  College,   Cam- 
bridge, 1625-1632. 

(a)  On  the  Morning  of  Christ's  Nativity  (1629);  unites  Pagan 
and  Christian  elements  in  the  manner  of  Renaissance  poets; 
anticipates  the  conception,  in  Paradise  Lost,  that  heathen 
deities,  representatives  of  Satan,  were  put  to  flight  by  the 
coming  of  Christ;  shows  sympathy  with  the  beauty  of  old 
religious  faiths,  not  hatred;  style  disfigured  at  times  by  con- 
ceits, but  a  poem  filled  with  lyrical  beauty  despite  its  learn- 
ing. 

(6)  Seven  Latin  elegies,  written  1625-1629,  valuable  for 
autobiographical  details:  his  relations  to  several  friends; 
an  early  love  affair;  his  interest  in  London  crowds  and  thea- 
tres; his  conception  of  the  poet's  function. 

(c)  Some  experiments  in  verse,  such  as  metrical  versions 
of  some  Psalms,  a  speech  for  a  vacation  exercise  at  college, 
some  elegiac  poems,  a  tribute  to  Shakspere. 

(d)  The  famous  sonnet  On  Being  Arrived  at  the  Age   of 
Twenty  Three. 

2.  Poems  written  at  Horton  (1632-1638) 

(a)  Li  Allegro  and  II  Penseroso  (1634);  studies  in  contrasted 
moods,  representing  what  were  to  him  the  two  sides  of  a 
well  proportioned  life;  exactly  balanced  in  structure;  the 
setting  that  of  an  "ideal  day,"  though  this  is  not  strictly 
followed. 

(6)  The  Masques:  Arcades,  a  fragment,  1633;  Comus,  1634, 
published  1637.  Comus  unites  classical  studies  of  Milton 
with  elements  characteristic  of  the  Renaissance;  sources 
and  analogues  in  Spenser  (his  theory  of  Beauty,  and  the 
Bower  of  Bliss);  Peele,  The  Old  Wives  Tale;  Fletcher,  The 
Faithful  Shepherdess]  Jonson's  masque  of  Pleasure  Recon- 
ciled to  Virtue.  Distinguished  from  usual  type  of  masque 


126 

by  greater  amount  of  story,  seriousness  of  tone,  lyrical  beauty, 
perfection  of  form. 

(<:)  Lyddas  (1637),  published  in  the  collection  of  elegies 
in  memory  of  Edward  King,  1638;  a  pastoral  dirge  which 
observes  many  of  the  conventions  of  the  genre,  but  individual 
in  style,  thought,  and  beauty.  Sources  and  analogues 
in  Theocritus,  Virgil,  and  Spenser. 

3.  Poems  belonging  to  the  period  of  foreign  travel,  1638-1639. 

(a)  Six  Italian  sonnets,  showing  the  influence  of  Petrarch, 
and  perhaps  reflecting  an  experience  in  Italy. 
(6)   To  Manso,  a  Latin  verse  epistle  addressed  to  a  man  of 
letters  whom  Milton  met  at  Naples;  poem  important  for  in- 
dication that  Milton  contemplated  an  Arthurian  epic, 
(c)  Epitaphium  Damonis,  a  pastoral  dirge  of  great  beauty, 
written  in  Latin,  in  memory  of  his  friend  Diodati,  and  con- 
taining further  references  to  the  projected  Arthurian  epic. 

4.  These  poems  were  collected  in  1645  and  published  under  the 
title  "Poems  of  Mr.  John  Milton,  both  English  and  Latin,  com- 
posed at  several  times." 


128 

H.     Second  Period  (1640-1660) 

1.  This  period  important  chiefly  for  the  prose  works;  Milton 
engaged  in  teaching,  1639-1647;  Secretary  for  Foreign  Tongues, 
1649-1660;  completely  blind  after  1652. 

2.  Chief  Prose  Works 

(a)  The  Reason  of  Church  Government  (1642);  one  of  the 
most  important  sources  of  knowledge  concerning  his  life 
and  opinions. 

(b)  The  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce,  1643. 

(c)  Education,  1644. 

(d)  Areopagitica,  1644;  a  defence  of  the  liberty  of  the  press. 

(e)  Tenure  of   Kings  and  Magistrates,  and  Eikonoklastes, 
1649,  deal  with  right  of  people  to  dethrone  a  monarch. 

(f)  A  Free  Commonwealth,  1660;  proposes  an  oligarchy,  not 
true    republic;    possibly    caused  loss  of  secretaryship  and 
arrest,  August-December,  1660. 

3.  Poems 

(a)  Most  of  the  Sonnets  belong  to  this  period;  these  approach 
more  nearly  the  Italian  form  and  imitate  Petrarch  rather 
in  the  use  of  themes  drawn  from  religion,  politics  and 
the  life  of  the  poet  than  in  the  Elizabethan  sense.  Several 
are  addressed  to  women;  others  to  intimate  friends;  a 
third  group  deals  with  politics  and  statesmen,  and  the  fourth 
is  autobiographical. 

(6)  Some  few  translations  belong  here,  chiefly  from  the 
Psalms,  and  the  pathetic  Latin  ode  to  John  Rouse  (1646) 
librarian  at  Oxford,  in  which  Milton  longs  for  the  return 
of  the  Muse  of  Learning  and  an  age  of  sounder  hearts. 


130 

HI.    Paradise  Lost 

1.  Published  1667,  in  ten  books;  second  edition,  dividing  books 
vii  and  x  of  the  original,  making  twelve  books  in  all,  1674. 

2.  Inception  from  1641;  chief  documents  are  his  Epistle  to  Manso, 
the  Epitaphium  Damonis,  the  Reason  of  Church  Government,  and 
his  Common-place  Book.     Hesitated  between  Arthurian  and  Bib- 
lical subject;  epic  or  Greek  tragedy.     By  1642  had  several  outlines 
on  Fall  of  Man;  began  work  soon  after.     Influenced  by  Spenser, 
Tasso,  and  Renaissance  theory  of  a  poet's  function  and  of  the  epic. 

3.  Sources  and  analogues:  Many  epics  and  dramas  on  biblical 
subjects  throughout  Europe  in  the  seventeenth  century.     Milton 
possibly  influenced  by  Andreini  (Adamo,  Italian  drama,  1613); 
Du  Bartas  (Divine  Week,  translated  by  Sylvester,  1605);  Vondel 
(Lucifer,    Dutch   drama,    1654).     Other  poems   by  Vondel,   the 
Adamus  Exul  by  Grotius,  and  English  poems  by  Giles  and  Phineas 
Fletcher  may  have  had  influence.      Real   significance  is  not  in 
direct  borrowing;  rather  in  proof  of  widespread  interest  in  such 
subjects;  like  Dante,   Milton  sums  up  an  epoch;  his  poem  is 
a  literary  epic,  but  is  the  result  of  something  analogous  to  "epic 
ferment."    Error  to  regard  it  as  the  result  of  his  despair  over 
the  failure  of  the  Commonwealth;  in  inception  and  in  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  writing  it  proceeds  from  a  very  different  mood. 

4.  Contents:  Book  I.  Satan  and  Beelzebub  arouse  their  followers 
from  the  Lake  of  Fire;  Pandemonium  built.     II.  The  Parliament 
in  Pandemonium;  Satan  chosen  for  embassy  to  Earth;  the  occu- 
pations of  his  followers  during  his  absence;  his  flight  through 
Chaos.     III.   The   consultation   in   Heaven;   Satan's  arrival  at 
the  World  (Ptolemaic  cosmogony) ;  interviews  Uriel  in  the  Sphere 
of  the  Sun;  arrives  at  Earth  near  Eden.     IV.  Satan  visits  Eden, 
learns  the  conditions  on  which  Man  may  remain  there;  Uriel 
warns   Gabriel,    who    thwarts    Satan's    first   attack.     V.-VIII. 
Raphael  warns  Adam;  relates  the  story  of  Satan's  rebellion  and 
fall;  gives  an  account  of  the  Creation.     IX.  Satan  succeeds  in 
his  plot.    X.  Adam  and  Eve  sentenced;  Satan's  return  and  ac- 
count of  his  victory;  remorse  of  Adam  and  Eve.      XI,    XII. 
Michael,  sent  to  drive  Man  from  Paradise,  shows,  in  vision,  the 
history  of  the  race;  the  expulsion. 


132 

IV.   Last  Works  of  Milton 

1.  Paradise  Regained 

(a)  Several  subjects  from  the  life  of  Christ  in  Milton's 
list  of  1640-1641;  subject  of  Christ's  victory  over  Satan 
implicit  in  Paradise  Lost;  the  poem  probably  written  1665- 
1667;  published  1671. 

(6)  Sources  and  analogues  in  the  book  of  Job,  which  Milton 
regarded  as  an  epic;  in  Giles  Fletcher's  Christ's  Victorie 
(of  value  only  as  an  analogue);  and  in  the  biblical  account 
of  Satan's  temptation  of  Christ. 

(c)  The  poem,  which  is  in  four  books,  is  less  effective  than 
Paradise  Lost  because  of  its  artificiality  in  comparison 
with,  the  biblical  narrative;  its  consequent  failure  to  be 
convincing;  the  lack  of  creative  imagination;  the  tyranny 
of  religious  dogma. 

2.  Samson  Agonistes 

(a)  Published  1671;  this  subject  also  included  in  the  list 
of  1641,  and  in  his  choice  of  Greek  tragedy  as  his  model 
Milton  realizes  his  earlier  inclination  toward  drama;  not 
intended  as  an  acting  drama. 

(6)  Sources  and  analogues:  Besides  the  narrative  in  Judges 
(chapters  xiii-xvi),  a  drama  by  Vondel  on  the  same  subject 
(1660)  is  analogous,  though  not  a  true  source, 
(c)  Significance  consists  in  the  analogy  between  the  theme 
and  the  mood  of  Milton  after  the  Restoration;  in  the  extra- 
ordinary variety  and  effectiveness  of  the  versification; 
in  the  freedom  from  ornament  and  allusion,  on  which  com- 
pare the  Elizabethan  prodigality  of  the  early  poems. 

3.  To  this  period  also  belong  a  text  book  on  Grammar,  a  History 
of  Britain  (1670),  and  the  second  edition  of  the  Minor  Poems, 
with  some  additions   (including  poems  of  the  second  period), 
1673. 


134 

Studies 

1.  On  the  early  poems 

(a)  Find  illustrations  in  the  texts  of  the  characteristics  named  in 

the  Outline. 

(6)  Compare  Comus  with  other  masques,  e.  g.  one  of  Jonson's. 

(c)  Relation  of  these  poems  to  Elizabethan  poetry. 

(d)  Milton's  use  of  Nature. 

2.  On  the  works  of  the  second  period 

(a)  From  the  sonnets,  the  Latin  elegies  (i,  v,  vi,  vii),  the  Latin 
epistle  to  his  father,  the  Reason  of  Church  Government,  summarize 
the  autobiographical  material. 

(6)  Make  an  outline  of  Areopagitica,  testing  its  value  as  argument, 
(c)  Characteristics  of  Milton's  prose;  on  which  compare  Bacon. 

3.  On  Paradise  Lost 

(a)  The  best  books  to  read  are  the  first,  the  second,  and  the  ninth. 
(6)  Compare  with  the  Aeneid  as  to  management  of  the  action; 
unity  of  the  plot;  use  of  epic  conventions;  heroic  simile;  the  speeches. 

(c)  Compare  the  verse  with  that  of  Hamlet  or  The  Tempest. 

(d)  Study  the  characterization  of  the  speakers  in  Pandemonium 
and  the  construction  of  the  speeches  as  arguments. 

(e)  Milton's  diction  as  compared  with  Shakspere's. 

(/)  Milton's  use  of  biblical  material.     Of  classical  allusion, 
(gr)  Has  the  poem  a  hero? 

4.  On  Samson  Agonistes 

(a)  Read  Milton's  introduction  and  discuss  the  relation  of  the 
drama  to  Greek  tragedy. 

(6)  Compare  it  with  Comus  as  to  action,  verse,  style.  Criticize 
Macaulay's  comparison. 

(c)  The  autobiographical  significance. 

(d)  Passages  from  Milton's  works  illustrating  his  attitude  toward 
the  drama. 


136 

References:  The  best  brief  biographies  are  those  by  Pattison  (English  Men  of 
Letters)  and  Raleigh  (Putnam).  Professor  Saintsbury's  essay  in  Cambridge 
VII.  108-161;  Courthope  III.  378-421,  and  the  Introduction  (Moody)  to  the 
Cambridge  edition  of  the  Poetical  Works  supply  both  biographical  and  critical 
material.  For  the  prose,  the  most  convenient  edition  is  that  in  the  Riverside 
Literature  Series  (Lockwood);  this  also  contains  several  early  biographies;  see 
also  Morley's  selections  from  the  prose,  valuable  for  the  autobiographical  pas- 
sages, and  Corson's  Introduction  to  MiUon  (Macmillan).  The  best  single  volume 
edition  of  the  poems  is  the  Cambridge  (Houghton),  which  is  noteworthy  for  the 
separate  introductions  to  the  several  poems.  On  the  verse,  see  this  book  and  also 
Corson,  Primer  of  English  Verse,  193-220.  The  great  authority  on  Milton  is 
Masson,  The  Life  of  John  Milton,  six  volumes.  Of  the  innumerable  essays,  those 
by  Lowell,  Macaulay,  Dowden,  Leslie  Stephen  may  be  consulted.  WoodhulFs 
The  Epic  of  Paradise  Lost  is  useful  for  its  summaries  of  plots  of  analogous  works. 


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